How Did This Happen!
by dracoyoflam
Summary: Draco and Hermione are thrown together in an adventure which takes them to many highs and many lows. Along the way, they discover that there is more than what meets the eye when it comes to the situation and each other. R for later chapters.
1. Hogwarts Express

"Watch it Mudblood!" Draco Malfoy yelled as he ran into Hermione Granger in the hallway of the train.

"Shove it Malfoy!" Harry said in Hermione's defence. He was always sticking up for her even though she was more than capable of doing it herself.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had become really close over the past five years that they'd known each other. This was the beginning of their sixth year together at Hogwarts, and Harry and Ron were pretty much the brothers Hermione had never had.

Draco smirked in the manner he always did; turning a cold shoulder as he ventured off through the train. Hermione's eyes traveled across his retreating form, lingering over his…

'Wait a moment! Why am I looking there?' she mentally smacked herself before carrying on down the train with Ron and Harry.

She always knew that more than half the girls in the school had a crush on Malfoy, but she had never really seen what they saw in him. However, the summer had apparently done him some good. Even she couldn't deny that his improved physique and slight tan made him attractive.

She was glad that Harry and Ron were too busy glaring at Malfoy to look at where _her_ eyes had just been.

As they weren't looking at her her, she decided to at least enjoy the view until he was out of sight.

The trio went into an empty compartment to talk about their summer, about school, and of course: Quidditch. Hermione had never seen what the big appeal of the game was, and opened a book to pass the journey.

Meanwhile...

Draco thought to himself as he walked away, 'Wow, Granger looks a bit different this year, she actually didn't seem that bad looking, she actually looked reasonably good...'

He stopped dead in his tracks and mentally slapped himself for having such an insane thought.

'She's a filthy mudblood, there's no way she's the least bit attractive. My father would murder me on the spot if he knew that even for a second that a thought like that had entered my mind.'

His thinking was interrupted by Pansy and the two big goons, Crabbe and Goyle. Draco really didn't like hanging around such stupid and shallow people, but he really didn't have a choice in the matter. All of their parents were Death Eaters, and apparently it was only right for their children to be friends with each other. In fact, his parents had already told him that he'd have to marry Pansy, even if he had to be forced to do so.

Later, Malfoy decided that he had had enough of the fools and went for a walk through the hallway of the train. He came to the conclusion that his thoughts about Granger earlier were probably due to the fact that he hadn't had a good shag in months. So, he decided that he would just go find her to prove to himself that his mind was playing tricks. He'd see and realize again just how ugly she actually was.

His train of thought was interrupted once more, only this time it was by something utterly different. An unbearable squealing sound came from the wheels of the train as the vehicle shuddered. He looked ahead, noticing that he had found Granger a bit sooner than he had expected to. She was just leaving Potter and Weasel to go into the compartment while the boys went down the hall to try to find the problem and be heroes, as always.

Draco slowed until the 'hero's' were out of sight. He walked up to Hermione and roughly put his hands over her eyes and said,"Guess who mud...Granger."

He knew he'd messed up, there was no way that she _wouldn't_ know it was him unless she really wasn't as smart as everyone thought.

Hermione stood there for a moment trying to decide how to react, she settled for just yelling at him. "Malfoy! Why the Bloody Hell are you touching me? Get off of me!"

The next thing they knew they were both rolled into the compartment and all the lights blinked out.

"Malfoy, get off me!"

"My pleasure. Why would I ever want to be on top of you?" he moved to the door "Why won't this door open?"

"Are you doing it the right way?" She asked as she went towards the door. "Let me try, you've got to be doing it wrong."

He glared at her, "I know how to open a door! But be my guest Miss Smart ass!"

She pushed past him and started to fight with the door, he was unfortunately right, the door wouldn't open. "It's jammed shut." She said as she started thinking: 'Great. I'm stuck on a broken down train, in the dark, with the biggest prat in the school.'

"I told you it wouldn't open." He said as he sat there and smirked at her.

"Do you hear that?" They looked at each other through the darkness, and tried to listen for sounds coming from outside the compartment. Other students were screaming from different areas of the train.

"Harry look out!" They heard someone cry.

Hermione's heart was pounding, she wasn't out there to help and she had no idea what was happening. What if something awful was happening to Ron and Harry? She had no way of getting to them or helping. She felt so helpless just sitting there waiting until the screams from the other students finally went silent. She tried once more to pull at the door, but it was no use.

"We're stuck, what are we going to do?" she said, dejected.

Draco glared at her and then smirked yet again, "What are _WE_ going to do? Ha, you mean what am _I_ going to do. I'm not going to do anything with you Granger. I can help myself."

"Oh can you then?" She challenged.

"Yeah, I can get out of here all on my own. I don't need a filthy mudblood, such as yourself, to help me."

Hermione just sat there. "Well what are you waiting for then, _are_ you going to get out of here anytime soon? Or continue to argue with me?" She said with a slight snarl.

"In the morning I'll get myself out, there's no use getting out now. It's already dark outside, and we have no idea if it's safe."

Hermione hated how she hadn't thought of this before he had. She didn't like the fact that he sounded so intelligent and logical in this time of panic.

Hermione looked at him again and asked, "Well where are you going to sleep, Malfoy? So I can be sure to stay away from you."

"Well I don't know yet, where are you going to sleep? I really don't want to accidentally touch the dirty skin of a mudblood. The filth would never wash off."

She glared at him with hatred, "I'll probably sleep right there where most of the cushions have fallen from the seats, so if you'll just move out of my way I can get comfortable and fall asleep early. Who knows what will happen tomorrow?"

Hermione walked over to the spot and looked back at Draco and he was just standing there staring at her. "What?" She asked.

"Huh?...Oh I was just thinking of how mad you're going to be when I steal your sleeping spot."

"You're _not_ going to steal my spot!"

Draco looked at her for a moment, "Well then I guess you're just going to have to share with me, I have to be comfortable to get enough sleep. And I need my beauty sleep to keep these great looks." He sneered.

Hermione started laughing, "What great looks, you know you're one of the ugliest guys in Hogwarts, right?!" In her mind, she knew this was one of the biggest lies that she had ever told in her entire life.

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Authors note: Well, that's the first chapter. Let me know what you think.

I have about 8 chapters finished already so I will try to update fast.

Please review and remember this is just the first chapter, it will get more interesting soon I promise.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Pretend to Sleep

A/N: I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this but I thought you might like it if I posted it now.

Please enjoy and the chapters will get longer I promise. I have to set things up first.

I will post the next chapter tomorrow. Who knows, I might post 2 again. :)

Thanks and Please Review Review Review.

Special Thanks to Utopia for being my wonderful editor. Without you, my story wouldn't be what it is now.

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Draco sauntered over to Hermione and made sure that he got close enough that she could feel every part of his muscled body touching hers; the unexpected, intimate closeness deepened her breathing.

"So, if I'm so ugly I guess this _doesn't_ affect you at all, does it?"

Hermione had no way to escape this situation, she was aware that he knew she had lied about calling him ugly. If she was being honest, she was one of those previously mentioned people who had a crush on him… she just wouldn't _ever_ admit it to anyone, she even tried to lie to _herself_, sometimes. She was helpless when it came to his handsome appearance; and now that he was so close to her it was one of the greatest sensations of 'helplessness' she had ever felt.

She stood shocked for a moment as Draco moved to the spot where they were going to sleep, Making sure he spread out as much as possible. One leg was bent at the knee, a large foot planted on the make-shift mattress; the other long leg stretched out straight. He posed one arm behind his head, showing the bulge of a bicep that had taken hours of weightlifting to achieve, the opposite arm lay across the area where Hermione wanted to lay.

'Great!' She thought, 'Now I have to fight over sleeping space, you git!' She sat down next to him and pinched him hard on the exposed arm.

"Ouch! What are you doing Granger? Are you trying to take my arm off?"

"Well if you would stay in your own space then you wouldn't have to worry about it."

She lay down, whispering to herself: "It wasn't a hard nip anyway, you're just being a baby, as usual."

About an hour later, Hermione finally fell asleep and rolled over so that her nose was just barely touching his. Draco slowly opened his eyes and looked at her. He realized how beautiful her skin was close up; so silky smooth and creamy pale.

'What am I thinking? Granger is _not_ good looking in any way possible. She's filthy with her long, curly, brown, _sweet_ hair. She has great hair... I'm hopeless, I'm going to sleep now before I go completely mad while just staring at her.'

He rolled over and closed his eyes for a good night's rest, which he didn't know how badly he would need it the next day.

When Draco rolled over, Hermione decided that it was safe enough to stop pretending to sleep. She couldn't help feeling the sensations she got when she accidentally touched his nose with hers just moments ago. He was the most attractive young man that she had ever seen, but he had such a nasty 

personality. She began thinking about the terrible things that he had done to her; the thing's he'd done to Harry and Ron. She thought about how the words from Draco had really hurt; even if she didn't let it show.

She sighed deeply to prevent the tears from the memories; she hated how he could make her cry.

Draco rolled over and they stared at each other for a while.

"What?" she said.

"Well, you woke me up, I should be asking _you_ what." He replied

"If _that's_ the case then go back to sleep because I'm not going to talk to YOU about it." It was a childish reply, but in her exhaustion she couldn't come up with something else.

"Why not, it's not as though you can tell _anybody else_ right now."

She simply blinked at him and turned away slightly, "I guess I won't tell anybody then. I only tell my problems to people who care, and you're not one of those people. Goodnight." She whispered.

"Maybe I don't care, but if _your_ problems are keeping _me_ awake then I'll help just so I can get some bloody rest! So what is it?" he grumbled

Hermione glared at him for a while before she answered, "Aren't you wondering what we're going to find when we... YOU get yourself out of here tomorrow? I mean there could be bodies everywhere, we heard them screaming… What if we go out there and see our friends..." She couldn't finish the sentence.

Draco looked around as if looking for the right thing to say. The dark compartment offered no answers.

"That's not what we're going to find when we get ourselves out of here. I wager that everyone is safe, back at Hogwarts and getting ready to look for us tomorrow."

He knew this probably wasn't true but he felt that for some reason he should comfort her. Hermione turned and looked into his eyes, realizing for the first time just how beautiful they were. They were a mixture of a Grayish-Blue and Silver.

They looked so deep and inviting that it was almost unbearable.  
She looked away as she realized that she must have been staring at his eyes for a noticeable length of time.

Draco pulled her chin up so that they were making eye contact again.

"So, you like the way my eyes look?" he asked, mockingly.

"Yeah, and you know what, if you weren't such an arse, you might actually be a very good looking young man. But we both know that you're not going to change the way you act anytime soon… so you're stuck being an ugly person." She replied, pushing his hand away from her face.

"Really, what makes you think that I couldn't change if I wanted to?" he accused.

She laughed, "Well, I have known you for the past six years and you've always been the same; such a big change would be impossible – you would never be able to do it. Maybe if you had a really good reason, you could change, but I doubt a reason is going to suddenly hit you."

He leaned a little closer, making her a little uncomfortable. He whispered quietly: "Maybe I do have a good enough reason to change. You'll see, I'll prove you wrong on this one Hermione. You're not always right."

And with that said he leaned in and kissed her lightly on the cheek before laying down and turning away from her.

Hermione lay there in shock for at least ten minutes; the same thought running through her mind. 'He just called me _Hermione_, he said my _name_. What's wrong with him? Perhaps he hit his head when we fell in here. Oh my God! he _kissed_ me... Draco Malfoy just kissed me!'

She started blushing as she thought further into this unusual and unexpected development, before trying to dismiss her thought and rolling over to try and get some much-needed sleep.

'I just _kissed_ Granger on the cheek, have I run mad?! Merlin, I called her by her first name, this is insane!' Draco thought, his thought trespassing into territory they shouldn't enter.

They both lay there thinking about what just happened between them; even though it wasn't much, they wondered if things would be different in the morning. They wondered if either of them wanted it to be, and most importantly, what would happen if they did want to change?

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Authors Note: Let me know what you think. I look forward to your reviews.

I also post on Adultfanfiction, that's why I already have 8 chapters finished.

I decided to share my stories with this site as well. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Thanks for reading! Review Review Review ;)


	3. Thinking of You

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has read the first two chapters so far. More people are reading this already than what I thought it would be. Lol.  
Also thanks to reimihars21 for the review, I love to read what everyone thinks.  
As for your question, you will find out what happened to everyone in the much later chapters.  
Sorry it's not sooner but I have a little bit of mystery planned. ;)

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Draco turned over and looked into Hermione's eyes, "What are you thinking about, Hermione?"

"I'm thinking about you." She replied, blinking at her admission.

"Really? I'm thinking about you too. Actually, I can't stop thinking about you; I think I'm going crazy."

Hermione leaned in very slowly and kissed his cheek, gradually moving her lips over his face to his moist, hot lips. He couldn't resist her; they began kissing passionately, the heat from their bodies growing with every second. Draco started to let his hands wonder a bit; grasping her rear in his empty, wanting grip. He continued to touch her, hearing her mumble something…

"What the Hell are you doing Malfoy?! Let go of me!"

Draco opened his eyes, the passionate dream fully dissipating into the realization of where his hands were, and on whom. He pulled away as fast as he could.

"Remind me never to sleep next to you again; if you're going to have dirty dreams about Pansy Parkinson then I don't want any part of it."

"I wasn't dreaming about Pansy, she's a slut and incredibly ugly – in case you haven't noticed!" he looked apologetic "I'm sorry I didn't realize I was dreaming and...touching you at the same time. If I had known, then I definitely wouldn't have done it, believe me."

"Fine, but next time, I'm going to tie you down..."Draco stopped listening right there. He couldn't help but have naughty thoughts; he looked at Hermione and smiled. 'Really?' he thought.

"Don't get… nasty thoughts, lets just figure out how we are going to get out of here. Do you have any suggestions?"

Draco looked around the compartment until he saw the spot where the window was supposed to be. The window was at a downward angle and covered with debris. The carriage doors out into the train were jammed and buckled from the impact.

Draco tugged at a trunk but he couldn't move it by himself. "Well, are you going to help me move it or 

do you want to stay in here forever?" he said pettishly.

Hermione gingerly climbed over the clutter and rubble he'd already cleared, they both started pushing and pulling the trunk from the window. Hermione noticed the bulges from under his robes; she had felt his muscles pressed against her in the night, but she didn't realize just _how_ great they actually looked 'He has some nice muscles.' She thought appreciatively.

Within a few moments the case finally slid far enough from the window to leave a gap they could get through. The window was cracked and Draco kicked it a few times to shatter the glass and provide an exit. He got down on his stomach and stuck his head out the window.  
"Alright Hermione, you go first and if the train doesn't roll over on top of you, let me know so I can get out." He smirked at her.

"You're not funny." She glared at him.

"Oh come on.. I'm sure it'll be ok. Just go."

She moved over next to him and he helped her out of the window. She dropped through the gap; landing carefully on the shattered glass before she carefully scuttled on the shard-covered ground until she reached the small space between the train side and the ground. There wasn't much space, but it was enough to squeeze through.

"It's ok, I'm not squashed. You can come out now." She shouted.

While Hermione waited for him to climb out, she looked around to see if there was any sign of the School anywhere. Draco climbed out and asked, "Where are we?"

"I don't know; I don't recognize anything, Hogwarts isn't in sight." She answered.

"Well, lets just start walking and we'll see where we end up." He shrugged, setting off.

The angle of the train made looking through the windows of the other compartments difficult. Hermione attempted to search for survivors, but came close to severing the blood vessels in her wrists on one shattered window. Draco pulled her away.

"Granger! We haven't got time to search the train, it isn't safe! You almost slit your wrists trying to look through the window!" He sighed, noticing her pale face and sad expression, "I can't hear anything.

If people were still alive on there, they'd be calling for help or crying out in pain… I know it goes against all your Gryffindor sense of fairness and all things just and right; but we have to keep moving."

"Do we follow the tracks?" she asked in a meek voice, obviously shocked.  


"I don't think it's a good idea, whoever tipped the train might be waiting for survivors to walk down the track – and the tracks themselves don't offer any protection or cover. I think we'd be best walking in the same direction, but not on them or next to them."

They walked side by side through a forest until they reached a huge drop with a small river at the bottom of it.

"Hermione, do you think that tree lying across the river would hold us if we tried to walk across it?"

"I'm not sure, but there's only one way to find out I suppose." She said, her Gryffindor bravery showing through.

Draco walked over with her and put his foot on the tree; nothing happened. He tapped his foot on it a few times adding more pressure each time to test it out.

"Alright, stay here and I'm gonna see if it'll hold my weight."

She watched as he gingerly stepped onto the tree with one foot and then slowly the second one. As soon as he pulled his second foot onto the tree he started yelling for help, Hermione screamed and she grabbed him.

"Just kidding." He laughed as she glared at him with very angry eyes.

"That was not funny at all; I thought you were really falling!" she chided, her heart rate returning to normal after the fright.

"Well it's nice to know that you would have saved my life, let's keep moving and get across." He said, secretly happy she would have saved him – even though he'd have probably pulled her in after him if he'd have fallen.

They started walking slowly then a little faster when suddenly Hermione lost her footing and grabbed on to Draco for support. She was light, and the balance he used on his broom whilst flying kept him stable.

"Are you ok, do you have it now?" He asked as she lightly let go, his hands still close to catch her if she faltered again.

"Uh yeah, sorry, I just… um… I lost my balance and you were the only thing here to hold on to." She shrugged, nervous about the rest of the crossing – they were half way.

"It's alright, I'm glad I was here for you." He replied, ready to catch her again if needs be.  
They reached the end of the tree without incident; Draco leaping for the bank to help Hermione down.  


He reached up to grab her, however, she slipped and fell into his arms.  
They stared into each others eyes; Draco leaned in, stopping for a moment, hoping she wouldn't push him away. She didn't turn him away, instead she leaned into him as his lips barely touched hers… before their lips met fully, Draco pulled back a little.

'What am I doing?' he thought, the little trauma of the tree crossing wearing off. Reality came crashing back to him and he pulled away sharply.

"Come on Granger, keep moving. We still have a long day ahead of us." He said, walking away to put distance between their bodies.

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A/N: Again, thanks so much for reading. Please review review review. I love to read what you think about my story. Also don't forget, if anyone wants to discuss my stories or just look at some Dramione pics, check out my Yahoo! Group or my Myspace Group.


	4. Trouble

A/N: I hope that you enjoyed the last chapter. I decided to go ahead and post this chapter as well but I don't think I'm going to post two at a time anymore. ( Unless I'm in a Really good mood. Lol)  
Enjoy!

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Hermione sighed to herself, 'Why didn't he kiss me, I didn't do anything wrong did I? Did I want him to kiss me? I think I did but I don't know why. This is so wrong. Does he know how I'm feeling about him?'

Meanwhile...

'Does she know how I'm feeling about her? Does she know that I was dreaming of her, not Pansy? She couldn't know anything, could she? I'm not that obvious. Why didn't she push me away?'

'I'm so confused.' They both thought simultaneously.

They walked in silence thinking about each other most of the morning. Hermione of course having the advantage of being behind him, so he wouldn't notice that she kept staring at him, wondering if Malfoy could be any different, once you got to know him.

'But did she know him really? A few hours and a stressful situation wasn't the best judge of character. Perhaps it was some strange form of Stockholm Syndrome, but without the kidnapping?'

"Ouch, what the heck is that?"

"Draco, move! Get out of the way! Look out for that vine!" Hermione yelled as Draco was attacked.

It shot out suddenly and snared him around the ankle, dragging him into the forest. Hermione ran over, grabbed him by his left arm and kept pulling as hard as she could to keep him there – but it wasn't quite working the way she had hoped.

The vine maintained the tug o' war, they had to do something before he was dragged away to who knows where. Draco drew his wand and stabbed it through the vine, his wand recognized his distress and shot burning sparks into the captor. The vicious plant let go, and they heard a loud screeching noise from the distance.

Draco and Hermione both stood and ran together, hiding behind a huge tree. They were both panting, desperate to catch their breath.

"Oh my goodness! Draco, you're bleeding."

She pointed to the dark, faintly copper-scented stain on his shoulder; from where he had landed when the vine pulled him over.

"Okay, take your robe off and let me see."

"No I'm alright, really, I'll be fine."

Hermione shot him an odd look then yelled at him, "Take it off! Or I swear I'll curse you when we get back to school!"

He reluctantly took off his robe. He was wearing a tight black T-shirt that cast tempting shadows over his upper body muscles. His stomach was taught and he had muscular arms. He also wore perfectly tailored blue jeans, and below his black leather belt was his… his… _long muscular legs._

Hermione tried to look at the cut through the slice in his shirt, which was slowly soaking with blood; it was hard to tell how deep the wound went, as leaf litter and soil stuck to it. It had to be cleaned before she could make any form of judgment on it.

"Well, take you shirt off and let me take a proper look at that cut. It needs cleaning. Let me try to fix it for you."

He pulled his black shirt up over his head. He tossed it next to them and waited for Hermione to come and poke at his injured shoulder. She stared at him in amazement with her mouth hung open like a small snake eating a fat rabbit.

She quickly realized this and closed her mouth, crawling over and sitting behind him with her legs crossed Indian style.

She leaned over to try and take a good look at the cut but she was having difficulties with balancing on her legs the way they were and looking at his shoulder.

"You can get closer if you need to, I won't bite too hard I promise." Draco laughed.  
She thought 'Okay but you're the one that decided it, you remember that.'

She put one leg on each side of his body and scooted up right behind him. Drawing out her wand, she pointed it at the wound on Draco's shoulder.

'Well, I'm hoping that we're close enough to Hogwarts to use magic and not in trouble for it' she thought before muttering the spell she needed.

_"Aguamenti."_ A small jet of water came from her wand, responding to the small-voiced command, rather than a shout. There was just enough pressure to gently wash the blood and debris away without further damaging the tissue.

"It's really deep, you must have sliced it on a sharp rock, or something. It doesn't look too good."

She pointed her wand in the opposite direction to where they sat as she ripped a strip from his ruined shirt to use as a cloth. Soaking the fabric with her wand, she returned to the task in hand; trying to be as gentle as she could on his shoulder. It was really too deep for her careful cleaning to not hurt at all. Draco was sat cursing and hissing every time she touched him.

"Sorry, I don't mean to keep hurting you, I'm trying not to. Are you doing alright?" his pain was obvious, and Hermione didn't enjoy being the cause of it.

"Just hurry up will you." He hissed through clenched teeth as she carefully pulled a few fallen needles from an evergreen from the wound with her fingers.

First aid could only move so quickly and remain effective. It was better to take a little time now than risk Draco developing an infection; many plants had antiseptic essences, Hermione doubted _this_ one did, she gave another small squirt of water from her wand just to make sure the deep cut was clean before ending the spell.

Hermione took a deep breath before making a zig-zag motion between one side of the lesion and the other, muttering _Vulnero propinquus_ as she did. Slowly, the edges of the wound began to knit closed and seal.  
She hoped her use of magic wouldn't be noticed. Hermione tore more of his shirt into strips to make a bandage, wriggling out of the vest top she'd worn under her shirt to act as a dressing. Carefully she bandaged the wound, the little cotton top protecting the gash as well as soaking up the tiny trickle of blood that still came from what was now just a large scratch.

"We need to find a way to some water so I can soak your ankle; it's already starting to bruise."

"Well it doesn't feel to good either, any other negative, or obvious news you'd like to tell me?"  
Hermione gave a small grin and simply replied, "Yeah actually, your ankle is probably going to be rather painful, so have fun walking."

"Thanks Hermione, but I really didn't need an answer. The question was actually rhetorical, though you never fail to answer questions in class, so answering questions in a forest isn't surprising…  


Well, if my ankle is so bad then maybe we should start looking for a safe place to soak it. Let's go."

Hermione stood and started walking as she called out behind her, with a smile on her face. "Enjoy the walk, I'm sure I will."

They walked for a while before Draco needed to sit down and rest his ankle. It was already showing a blossoming bruise and becoming more inflamed by the minute. He only sat for a moment when Hermione looked down at him.

"I think I hear water, we should be getting close, if we keep walking it shouldn't be too long. Come on Draco, let's go, I suppose you could lean on me for support, if you really need to.

"How do you know we're getting close to water? I don't hear anything." Draco said, looking up at her.

"Well, because, according to my calculations of where the last river was and how long we were travelling in the train before the accident, there should be another river around here _somewhere_."

He didn't reply so she continued.

"I like to look out of the window of the train, and I remember things. Harry and Ron talk about Quidditch and things that I don't really care about, so I can keep myself occupied by staring out of the window."

"Oh." He said, "Well how do you know for sure that we're even headed in the direction of the river?"

"Can't you hear it? I think I'm starting to be able to smell the water too." She thought to herself, 'I really hope it's the right one, please don't be the Faesterevir.'

The Faesterevir was a river constructed from magic to try and keep anybody traveling by land from getting to the school, it was for protection. She read a little about it in The Magical Guardians book from the library. She thought it was really interesting how the river worked to keep people away, even though it was actually quite dangerous.

It looked like a normal river, very calm and inviting, a person could stand right next to it and not know the difference.

When they finally got to the river they both stared at it in awe, it was as clear as it could possibly be. They could see straight to the white sand at the bottom.  


"Wow! Hermione, we actually found the river! You were right."

"Yeah I guess." She looked at it and looked around, she didn't _feel_ quite right, but everything _looked_ normal enough.

She walked up to the water and looked into it; It looked safe to her; the current wasn't fast and it wasn't deep. Then she saw Harry and Ron, they were swimming around at the bottom, signaling for her to join them.

She stood there for a moment and heard her name, "Hermione, are you alright?"

She looked at Harry and she thought 'Yeah, I'm fine, why?'

Harry looked at her and signaled for her to get in again, she gingerly dipped one foot into the water – nothing untoward happened, so she stepped in with the other one. Harry and Ron pulled her in further, slowly pulling her to the bottom, they smiled at her and she smiled back.

'Wow this is fun, but shouldn't you be at school?' She thought.

Harry and Ron both had terrified facial expressions, gesturing madly to something behind Hermione. She turned, and saw a creature that looked like it was a mix between a dragon and some kind of water serpent. It was heading directly for her; huge jaws opened wide with thin, dagger-like teeth. It had shimmering green and silver specs mixed through the scale; and if it hadn't been terrifying, it would have been very beautiful.

She felt as if something was sucking all the air from her lungs; she couldn't breathe, what was happening? She looked for Harry and Ron, but they were nowhere to be seen anymore. Things became hazy, and just before she blacked out she saw the creature reach for her… and everything disappeared.

"Hermione! Hermione!"

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A/N:Thanks for reading and please Review.  
Also don't forget, I have a trailer for this fic on Youtube. It will probably give away a few tips if you watch it. Just thought I'd let you know. ;)  
-dracoyoflam


	5. Helping Out

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reads my fic. Also thank you so much for the reviews.

BabyDark – Sorry I didn't get you in the last a/n, your review didn't show up until right after I posted it. Thank you for reviewing, I love to see what readers think. I will try to post faster.

LoganLover8128 – You will find the answers to your questions in this chapter. If you have anymore questions about the river just send me a message. We could even discuss things at my groups.

Jdeppgirl4 – Yeah a magic river, I'm glad that you like it. :) Thank you so much for saying that and I will try to slow things down a bit. I already have the next few chapters finished but after that I will try to slow it. Thank you for being honest.

Special thanks to my editor, Utopia for all the hard work and my story wouldn't be what it is without you. You are brilliant.

Remember I love reviews so please leave many. Lol. Thanks again for reading and enjoy!  
-dracoyoflam

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"Hermione, wake up!" Draco had pulled her from the water and was now trying to wake her. She lay unconscious and Draco looked at her with sad eyes. 'Wait.' He thought, 'Of course…'

He stood up beside Hermione and took out his wand. He pointed it at her and he said, "_Ennervate_!" With the previous use of magic, it was unlikely the ministry would come down on them now; though the spells used had been medicinal and subconscious. Perhaps the Ministry only took note of less 'essential' magic?

He didn't have time to ponder the Ministry's actions on underage magic, as Hermione awoke and took a huge gasp of breath. She glanced around then looked up at Draco.

"What happened? Harry? Ron? Where did they go, Draco? Where are they?" She asked, almost shouting as she sat up.

Draco sat down beside her and glanced down at his feet.  
"They're not here, I'm afraid that they never were, it's just been me and you this whole time." He paused for a moment and glared at the water, "There's something wrong with that river... You _quite happily_ went into it and looked quite calm as it suffocated you."

"What are you talking about? I saw them, just as I see you right now. They were here but then...Did you see it too?" she said animatedly.

"See what?"

She looked at him with wide eyes, "You didn't see it, it was huge and it had green and silver scales. It scarred them away; I think it grabbed me just before I...blacked out. Now here I am."  
Draco looked at the smartest witch of their year as if she'd grown two heads.

"There wasn't anything there, just you. I'm the one that grabbed you, not some _thing_ that you're talking about. But it doesn't matter, you're safe now, and we'll just stay out of the water from now on. Oh and good news, we _can_ use magic without getting into trouble. I used a spell to wake you when I couldn't do it myself. I haven't received any flying papers telling me I'm expelled, so maybe we're close enough to school that we're allowed to use magic.

"I suppose but something just isn't right…" She replied as she glanced down at the ground.

"Yeah, I know. That river must have done something tricky with your head or something."

"No, I'm not talking about the river, but yeah you're right it does trick the mind. I'm talking about the accident and the way everyone just disappeared. Doesn't it seem strange at all to you?"

"There wasn't anyone there! There aren't even any fish or plants or insects! Its just water…" Draco looked at her seriously and looked back at the river. "Why did you get into the water if you knew it wasn't quite right?"

Hermione looked up at him and saw that he wasn't going to make eye contact with her while she explained herself to him. It was like her reaction to her Mother when she was mad at her or disappointed; they wouldn't look at each other until everything was settled.

"Well" She said, "It's not very common for the river to trick people _that_ way. Usually the person's emotions aren't strong enough; it just waits until they get in, then it does what it did… It tries to drown you."

"Oh. Well, then why didn't it try to drown _me_?" He was staring at her now, waiting for an explanation.

"The way it works, from what I understand, is that when a person loses someone or something very special to them, they see it in the river and they truly believe that it's real. And they try to get to what or who they've lost… If you lost something special, wouldn't you want it back?"

"Yes, I suppose I would." Draco replied.

"Well obviously the special thing or things in my case that I've lost would be Harry and Ron. I'm thinking that the creature I saw was you… _lost_ them." She went still and silent, her eyes wide and glassy.

Draco gave her a weird look, "What do you mean, _me_?"

" It makes you see things differently than you originally would outside of the water?" she said in a detached voice.

He paused at her reply, "Them?" he questioned.

"Harry, Ron." She clarified, he just nodded. "From what I remember reading, the water wants you to be scared of anything safe so you can't get away. So, you looked like a sea monster, when really you were my rescuer… but because, under normal circumstances, you're scared of your saviour, you drown, like I _almost_ did."

She smiled at him and said, "By the way. Thanks for saving me."

"I think I need to take a little walk." Draco went to push himself up from sitting on the ground when an excruciating pain shot through his ankle like someone had just stabbed it with the biggest and dullest sword they could get their hands on. "Ouch!"

He sat back down, Hermione leaned close to him and glanced at his ankle.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that."  
Hermione leaned toward his ankle to get a closer look, "It doesn't look too good, you need to soak it now before it gets any worse."

'My clothes are really wet and cold.' She thought with a small shiver. So she pulled her robe off to let it dry off a bit.

Draco saw her remove her robe, and he stared at her without realizing what he was doing. She was wearing a pink tank top with white lettering on it, the white undershirt that had covered her cleavage was masquerading as a dressing on his wound, and the valley between her breasts was drawing his attention.

It said something in a language that Draco didn't know and it had a small symbol underneath the words. She also had on a pair of low-rise black pants with a small symbol on it matching the one on the shirt.  
He remembered to revert his gaze from her chest to remember what she'd said. "I'm not daft enough to put my leg in that water!"

"Well I can't heal it completely but I can at least make the swelling go down and bandage it up for you." She said in compromise, realizing that the river _really_ wasn't a good idea.

"Alright." He said as he watched her get up and walk towards the river.

"What are you doing Hermione, don't go down there!"

She looked back for a moment as she replied, "It's ok, I'm just gonna wet a cloth for your ankle."

She looked around for a moment and realized that she didn't have a cloth to use, she then felt a little silly. So finally she took the bottom of the shirt and ripped a piece off all the way around her waist. The shirt was now a whole two to three inches shorter than it was before. Though, she'd already stolen a good few inches from his shirt, so it was all fair.

Draco stared at her more intensely now as she wet the cloth in the river, and he thought to himself, 'Wow, look at that body, she's gorgeous. And is that a hot pink bra that she's wearing?'

Looking closely he could see it because her top was still wet from earlier and the darker pink bra was showing through. Apparently she hadn't realized this yet, otherwise she most certainly would have been covered up.

He was starting to get excited just looking at her. Finally she walked back over to him and sat by his ankle again. This time she leaned in really close to examine his ankle, before starting to bandage it. In his position above her, he had an unrestricted view of her cleavage and the pretty lingerie.

As the first wrap passed around his ankle, he yelled in pain, his arousal completely countered by the throbbing agony.

After many expletives (many that Hermione didn't know existed) and cries of pain later, she was finally finished. His ankle was wrapped very nicely and would definitely keep the swelling down and support it.

"Alright Draco, I've got it wrapped now. The hard part is over."

"Thanks Hermione, I owe you one." He said with a hoarse voice, wishing for a pain drought.

"No you don't. You already saved my life in the river, what more could you possibly do? Besides, I want to be a healer when I leave Hogwarts, this is good practice."

She stood up, stretching her aching muscles from being in the same position for a while, Draco looked at her.

"I'm going to get some wood to make a fire for the night. I'll be back."

He stood up and limped off into the trees around them, he needed to be away from the temptation for a little while.

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A/N: Thanks for reading and I hope you liked it. Please review review review.  
Check out my groups and my story trailer, it will probably give away a few tips.  
I will post the next chapter really soon, I promise. ;)  
-dracoyoflam


	6. Conversation

I was going to wait to post this but I want my stories to catch up to the other site that I post one that way I can post all the chapters at the same time from now on.

Special Special thanks to my editor for all the hard work and for making my story even better than what it would be with out you. Luv ya and you're a life saver.

Everyone else thank you for reading and please let me know what you think, I love reviews, They make me very happy :)

Enjoy!

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Chapter 6: Conversation

Hermione felt like she had been waiting forever for him to come back. In fact, she had become utterly bored and decided to find something to contain fire, it was many years since her days as a girl guide, but she could remember how to set up a fire pit. She searched for long enough to collect far too many rocks and twigs. She eventually sat down to wait some more.

Just when she decided that it was long enough and that she needed to find him (he might be lost), he returned with his arms full of firewood.

"What took you so long Draco? I've been sitting here for a really long time!" she snapped, not wanting to admit she'd been worried.

He half smiled and replied, "Well honestly I've never had to find wood for a fire before so I wasn't really sure of what I was doing. I didn't know if it mattered what size or what kind to get. So I ended up getting these medium sized dry branches."  


'Finding fire wood is it?' she thought to herself, 'I think he vanished for such a long time to have a little 'alone time' - but that's just me with my head in the gutter.' She giggled for a moment before noticing he was staring at her.

"Oh, well that'll work just fine. Umm, put it all over there in one big pile."

She pointed to a clearing next to the forest so they wouldn't have to sleep next to the dangerous river, it would provide some shelter from the wind.

He walked over and sat all the wood down in one big thump on the ground. Hermione walked over and grabbed a few pieces and set them off to the side where there wasn't any grass or leaves to catch fire. Setting fire to the forest wasn't going to keep them inconspicuous.

With a flat rock she dug a deep-ish hole and lined it with other rocks, she grabbed some of the nearby grass and scrunched it into a ball, and placed it in the middle of the pit. The little twigs were leaned on top and the larger wood piled in a cone-like structure over the top.

She pulled out her wand, poked it into the middle 'nest' of dried grass and whispered, _"Incendio!"_. The whispered words gently lit the grass, which in turn lit the small twigs and then the larger branches. Before long, a fire was burning nicely.

"You know what Hermione, I'm actually really hungry. What about you, are you hungry too?" Draco said, punctuated with a growl from his stomach.

She nodded her head in response and "Yes I'm starving, why do you have something we could eat or are you just teasing me?"

"Well that depends. How do you feel about eating snake?"

Hermione had an odd expression on her face as she responded. "I've never eaten a snake before, it sounds... erm… different."

Draco pulled out his wand and said, _"Serpensortia!"_

A snake came shooting out of the end of his wand and landed on the ground in front of him facing Hermione, hissing and ready to strike. Draco walked slowly up behind it, grabbing a big rock on his way. Hermione knew what the rock was for, but didn't want to watch, she closed her eyes and heard a thud…

From somewhere, Draco pulled a potions dissection kit, Hermione wasn't sure where it had come from. It took a few minutes to clean the snake of it's innards, and it was washed clean with a gentle stream of water from his wand. That left them with a gutted snake and no idea what to do next.

"Now what?" Draco asked, looking at Hermione.

"Erm…" she said, looking around her and settling on the little metal case the knife had come from. It's other contents were emptied out and the metal tin enlarged to the size of a cooking pot. Hermione filled the pot with water and suspended it over the fire with magic.

"Snake stew." Draco commented as he threw in the reptile.

"You were right Draco, this actually is reasonably good." Hermione said as she gingerly took another bite, carefully teasing the flesh away from the many ribs.

"I told you, it mostly just tastes like chicken but better if you're starving in the middle of where ever the hell we are." He laughed to himself.

"Uh Draco?"

He looked up at her and saw that her smile had faded away.

"Yes?" He asked and she scooted a little closer to him to talk to him seriously.

"Well, two things… firstly, what sort of chicken do you eat?" His response was a laugh, "And secondly, I was wondering… When you pulled me from the water, what did you see?"

"What do you mean what did I see, I saw you. The river must not have affected me, that's all."

Hermione gently shook her head. "No, it doesn't work that way. It can't. Its whole purpose is to keep people from getting across it by drowning them."

"So then what exactly are you trying to say, Hermione?" he said, confused.

She looked at him for a second then thought about if she should mention it or not.

"Never mind, maybe we'll talk about it some other time. I'm really tired right now. I think I'm just going to go to sleep now. Goodnight."

Draco stood up with her and walked with her a little bit away from the fire.

Hermione pulled out her wand, pointed to a tree and said, "Mobiliarbus."  


At that moment the tree that she was pointing to moved up next to another tree, and both shuffled closer to the fire, their roots creaking in protest. Once they were close enough for what Hermione wanted to do, she pulled her wand down and the tree was stationary.

Draco realized what Hermione had planned so he walked back to where she had removed her robe. He grabbed it and started to walk back when he heard her muttered a spell and saw rope fly from her wand and neatly tied itself between the two trees.

Draco handed her the robe, which she placed on top of the rope forming a very small tent for them to sleep in.

"Well I guess I'll just sleep here then. G'night Draco." She repeated herself nervously.

As she went to sit down in the self made tent, Draco stopped her and said, "You're just going to sleep on the hard ground? No way! Step back a minute.

_Orchideus_!" He said this a few times until the ground where she was going to sleep was full of heavily scented flowers to sleep on.

"Thank you." She simply replied.

She turned and gave him a small kiss on the cheek as she lay down in the thick beautiful flowers. As Draco turned to walk away, Hermione decided to explain the earlier conversation.

"Draco, you know how I said that the river makes you see only something that you've lost, something that is special to you and you want it back?"

"Umm.. Yes, why?"

He asked very hesitantly. She looked into his eyes and replied, "Well because Draco... you saw _me_."

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Thanks and please review.  
luv you all for reading,  
-dracoyoflam

The next chapter will be up soon.

Review Review Review :)


	7. Camping? Naked!

Thank you to everyone who reads my story and I hope that you continue to read it. If anyone has any questions about my stories just go to either of my groups and I will answer anything the best that I can. Who knows, maybe I'll even give little hints about future chapters. :)

Special thanks to the following for the great reviews.

reader101 - Thank you and thanks so much for the review.

reimihara21 - Thanks. lol. Not quite a hook up yet but soon I think. :)

jdeppgirl4 - omg thanks, I tried to make it slow down a bit after the first so many chapters. I hope it stays that way.  
Thanks, I try to come up with new and interesting things. Here's more, enjoy!

My-Edward-1992 - Your wish is granted. lol. Let me know what you think about this one. :)

LoganLover8128 - lol, thanks I hope this one is just as good. I will post the next chapter either right after or I'll wait a little while, haven't decided yet. lol.

Thanks and Enjoy!  
-dracoyoflam

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Draco watched as Hermione lay down on the bed of flowers and close her eyes. She looked like Tatiana falling asleep, and he was Oberon, prince of Darkness watching on from the side. She was every inch the fairy queen with her mass of vine-like curls and deep brown eyes.

He stared at Her for a second before he stalked away. He couldn't think of anything to explain what happened! He hadn't seen her, he just hadn't seen anything! He grabbed some firewood and put it into the fire.

Hermione sighed and looked over at him. "I think you've got enough firewood in that fire to last a week in the rain! Anyway, I think we should get to Hogwarts tomorrow as long as we don't almost get killed by anything again." She yawned, snuggling down into the orchids.

Draco happily thought to himself, 'Good, it worked, she changed the subject.'

"Well I'm going to try to get some sleep now since we will have a long day tomorrow."  


Hermione went to lay down when she realized that with all the talking she had forgotten to do something about her wet hair and soggy clothes; she'd have a cold by morning if she stayed in them overnight. Hermione climbed out of the tiny tent and walked behind it, hoping for some cover so that Draco wouldn't see her. She began to undress, but she realized she didn't have anything to cover her nakedness with.

She grabbed her wand and whispered, "Accio Draco's robe." Thankfully, it worked and his robe came rushing through the forest and straight to Hermione. She wrapped the too-big robe around her body and shot another rope between her trees before hanging up the wet clothes to hang them for the night so they would (hopefully) be dry by morning.

As she was walking around the tent she saw Draco next to the fire stripped down to his silky black boxers. They were wet still, and clung to him like a second skin. He was hanging his wet clothes on a rope suspended between two firewood ground spikes next to the fire; apparently he had the same idea as Hermione. Draco turned and looked back and Hermione who was just standing there wondering what she should do.

"Don't look so terrified, there's plenty of my robe to go around!"

Hermione smiled slightly as if to show that she wasn't scared of sleeping naked with Draco Malfoy but it didn't really work because she really was quite terrified at the idea.

Draco motioned his had for her to walk over to him. "Well, come here, I know what we can do." She slowly walked up to him and he reached out to grab the side of the robe.

"What are you doing?" She squeaked and took a step back.

He grinned a little and replied, "I'm going to divide the robe in half so we can both be covered and dry, 

unless you want one of us to get sick and die during the night." Hermione actually felt a little dumb at her response to him but she stepped forward and let him grab the half of the robe that she wasn't using for herself.

Draco pointed his wand and said, "Diffindo." The robe tore apart straight down from where his wand had been pointed.

"Well I'm going to try to get some sleep now since we will have a long day tomorrow."

Hermione walked back to the tent and cast a protection charm on the camp site before she climbed in and laid back to close her eyes and sleep.

Draco stared at her for a while before he pulled of his boxer shorts and wrapped the robe around himself. He sat by the fire thinking to himself, judging by the stars, he'd been awake for about half the night before he finally dozed off next to the fire, which was still burning high from earlier.

He was thinking about a few things, but his thoughts focused on those pale pink satin and lace knickers and bra blowing in the gentle breeze. But mostly he thought about how he admired Hermione, but he didn't know where it came from. They had always been enemies, and they had hated each other since their first year at Hogwarts. It really makes no sense at all…

What neither of them knew was that he was wrong; it made perfect sense. It made perfect sense to the one who planned it...

A couple of hours later, Draco woke as the cold air hit him, the fire wasn't keeping him warm anymore. He might have brought enough wood for a week in the rain, but the fire had practically burnt out because the fuel hadn't been on it.

Draco slowly stood, he held the robe tightly to himself to try and keep whatever warmth he did have. He walked quietly over to Hermione's make-shift tent and slowly climbed inside. He was hoping that this time he didn't grab her like last time in the train.  


He laid next to her sleeping form and he could already feel the warmth on his skin. Once he was comfortable with his position he laid his head back and fell asleep within seconds.

The next morning the fire was still burning; Hermione woke first, which she was secretly happy about since the morning sun wouldn't allow her the same cover as last night.

She was about to sit up and leave the tent when she felt something behind her, she peaked over her shoulder and saw Draco sleeping peacefully next to her. She was a little confused but then realized that it must have become rather chilly outside, and therefore she really couldn't be upset with him.

She wasn't quite sure what to do, she really didn't want to wake him as she wanted to get dressed first. She turned over a little to sit up, but as soon as she did Draco's arm fell over her waist and he moved even closer to her, snuggling into her warmth. Her eyes were wide and she sat there more confused than before, she definitely didn't know what to do now.

As her shock started to fade a little she realized that Draco was very close to her now, so close that she could feel something against her thigh that she knew that she shouldn't be feeling.

She decided that she couldn't just half-sit-half-lay there next to him, especially with him in that 'position', so she slowly lifted his arm off of her and gently laid it down on his side. She scooted away and silently thanked Merlin that he didn't wake up.

She quickly went behind the tent and changed as fast as she could. Her clothes were mostly dry, or at least good enough to wear mostly comfortably – but slightly soggy knickers were nobody's idea of fun.

Again she was surprised by Draco as she came back around the tent. He was already pulling on his jeans. She silently hoped to herself that he didn't see anything between the trees and her small robe, forgetting that her unmentionables had been on the line for him to see.

"Let me check your bandages and your ankle before we set off for the day." She said gently. He agreed, and sat down to allow her to check his ankle first, which he could still feel the sharp pain.

"Ouch! Be careful Hermione, it didn't heal overnight."

"Well sorry, but I don't have to do this for you! I could just let your ankle get even more swollen and then we'll see how painful _that_ will get!" she snapped and continued to peel away the bandage, regardless of his protests and moaning.

Draco smiled at her cruel humor. Hermione finally peeled the old bandages off and realized that his ankle wasn't looking too good. She silently hoped that Madame Pomfrey would be able to heal it before it got worse; she hoped the mediwitch was at Hogwarts and safe. She pulled out her wand and said, "Ferula."

Bandages shot out and wrapped nicely around his ankle. Hermione hoped that at least the bandages would help support him while walking. When she was mostly happy with his ankle, she moved on to look at his shoulder. At least that was healing up nicely. She liked the way it looked (as much as one can like a half-healed wound) and left the makeshift bandages off, he didn't need them anymore, the wound needed air not dressings.

Hermione walked over to the tent and said, "Deletrius."

The ropes and protection charm wore off and she bent down to pick up her robe.

"Thanks Hermione for… umm… helping me out." He paused for a moment then continued, "How long do you think it will take us to get to Hogwarts from here?"

Hermione turned to answer and realized that he had dressed and took down the ropes about as fast as she did.

"Well, it depends on if we run into any problems along the way. Otherwise we should probably get there before dark." She answered him.

"Good, we can actually get some sleep in a bed tonight. This outdoor sleeping thing isn't the greatest experience."

Hermione smiled at him and they both started to walk away from the fire and closer to Hogwarts. They kept their wands held tightly in their hands for quick use in case of another emergency.

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A/N: Thanks to my beta reader, Utopia, I luv you and you're wonderful. You do so much for me and I really appreciate everything.

Thank you for reading and please review.  
I live for reviews. I hope you liked it and I hope that you check out the groups that I mentioned in like every chapter. lol. It will be worth it. I will answer any questions and maybe :) give away some hints.

I know this wasn't all adventurous but it had to be done and don't worry, eventually Hermione will feel his 'position' on more than her leg. Lol.

Please Review Review Review.

-dracoyoflam


	8. Running and Hogwarts

A/N: Thanks to everyone who still reads this story. Also thanks so much to everyone who reviews; I love to see what everyone has to say.

Special Thanks to:

LoganLover8128 - Your welcome! Thanks so much, I love your reviews. Your about to find out if they run into anything. I will update again tomorrow but after that I'm actually going to have to wait for my chapters to be edited. Sorry, I spoiled everyone now didn't I. lol.

Heromione Malfoy - Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Well now you don't have to be curious, well about this chapter at least. lol.

Thank you so much to all my readers.  
The next chapter is the last one that is pre-written and edited. Sorry but after the next chapter you will actually have to wait a little while.

I will try to go as fast as I can though and if it takes a little while then I will post a piece of the chapter so you can at least get a peak. ;)

-

Enjoy!

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Chapter 8: Running

They walked onward through the morning with no unexpected problems halting their progress – only Draco's injury gave them cause to pause and rest. The sun shone brighter through the trees, the breeze rustling the leaves and making dancing patterns on the forest floor.

"Hermione, we need to stop and rest for a minute, my ankle is killing me." Draco gasped as he breathed through the pain.

Hermione stopped and sat down on a fallen branch from a nearby tree. "Alright, but we can't stay here long if you want to be in bed at Hogwarts before tonight."

Draco walked up and slumped down next to Hermione on the fallen branch. A flash of pain shot through his skull like an axe had fallen upon it.

"_Hermione_... Argg!"

"Draco! Are you ok? What's wrong?" She grabbed his hand not knowing what else to do. Suddenly the pain stopped, he sat there for a moment with the sweat running down his face.

"Draco are you alright?" she asked as he shook in the aftershocks.

He turned slowly to face her, as grey eyes met amber there was a moment of _understanding_.

He quickly pulled her toward his body, pressing his lips to hers in a rapid, bruising kiss; then he slowed into a more adoring, gentle embrace, with their lips barely brushing against each other – sending little shocks of magic through both their bodies. They moved closer to each other, and the hand that Draco didn't have around Hermione's shoulders met with her upper thigh. They angled their heads for a better alignment of their lips and the kiss slowly deepened to allow their tongues to tentatively duel.

Suddenly, rustling bushes and trees in the distance interrupted them; the crackling of leaves rubbing against each other was followed by a very loud squealing sound from the same area.

"What in Merlin's name was that?" Draco asked, breaking the kiss – his eyes wide as the squealing became louder and closer to them. Hermione stood up, leaving him on the fallen tree branch.

"I don't know," she answered, "but I think our stop is over. It's probably a good idea to start running, now."

Yet another loud squealing came through the trees. Draco, with adrenaline flowing through him stood up quickly, suddenly able to ignore the pain as his flight-or-fight reflexes took over. "Yeah, good idea, let's go."

They started running (though, in Draco's case, hobbling) as fast as they could through the thick forest. They stopped abruptly when they came to a small open space, trees stood around it like prison bars.

"Which way Hermione?" He looked at her desperately, hoping she knew what to do next. She set her wand on the palm of her hand and spoke clearly, "Point me!"

The wand spun to point North. "Ok, let's go. Follow me Draco!"

She held her hand out with the wand in front of herself, her other hand gripping his and practically dragging him as they continued to run and limp as fast as they possibly could through dense forest. Finally, the trees gradually thinned out into a few sparse saplings in a clearing. They were panting for breath, holding the stitches in their sides and calming down. It seemed like forever-and-a-day before they finally stood still.

Panting hard Hermione looked at Draco and tried to speak but between gasping breaths it was mostly nonsense and broken sentences. "We... lost... whatever... was… squeal"

They tried to listen for any more movement in the distance above the pounding of their hearts, rushing blood and heavy breathing; hearing nothing but the natural rustling of branches in the wind, they sat down in the grass to catch their breath.

Hermione lay back, and turned her head to look at Draco, who'd done the same. "Like I said, I think we lost whatever it was that was back there."

He laughed, "Thanks for clarifying, I didn't understand what you were talking about just a minute ago." He sighed, "So, are we getting close to being at Hogwarts yet?" After the rush of adrenaline had abated, the pain in his ankle returned tenfold, he gritted his teeth through the sudden throbbing; it had worsened with their flight.

Hermione sat back up and looked around them. She smiled with a huge grin before standing.

"What is it Hermione?" he groaned, closing his eyes and breathing deeply.

"Well, it looks like we're almost there. In fact, if I'm right, which I should be, Hogwarts is just a little bit past these trees, that was the forbidden forest we just dashed through. I think we should keep walking." She suddenly transformed back into the bossy know-it-all everyone recognized, "Now, if you walk with me, we will be there just before dark, like I said this morning."

Draco smirked at her as he stood up. "Yep, you're so smart, but I'm faster, even with a bad ankle. I'll race you to the Great Hall!"

"Don't be _stupid_! You'll end up doing _more_ damage that way! I said _walk_ with me!" she huffed, one hand on her hip and the other wagging a finger in his face.

With a huff of acquiescence from Draco and a face of triumph from Hermione, they both set off walking; Draco trying to walk faster to prove to the witch that he _could_; he gave up the idea after yet another tongue lashing from the witch after she saw him wince.

Within half an hour, they were finally stepping over the Hogwarts threshold.

--

They walked side by side through the doors of the Great Hall and came to an immediate halt. What was supposed to be a big room with four long tables and house banners was a mass of shattered windows, torn flags and splintered wood. The enchanted ceiling was a mere view of dull oak beams. They turned to each other in great horror and shock.

"Draco, this is awful! I wonder what happened!? Do you think any students arrived after what happened with the train?" she gasped.

"Well, I haven't seen anybody yet and I don't hear anyone." He mumbled.

Hermione turned and ran out of the Great Hall and up the stairs as fast as she could. She was heading to the Gryffindor common room with Draco behind her, trying to breathe through the pain of running on his injured ankle after her. They got to the door supposedly hidden by the Fat Lady; the frame was broken and thrown to the ground, the fat lady nowhere to be seen.

Draco motioned towards the open door of the common room. Hermione walked in front of Draco, through the portrait hole and into the Common room; tears rolled down her face. The formerly comfortable furniture was a mass of rags, stuffing and charred wood; carpets and rugs were in shreds. The walls had obvious spell burn marks on them. The little tables and desks people had used for their homework were piles of grey ash and charcoal.

The room was ice cold without a fire in the grate or people bustling around.

She started walking up the stairs to the girl's dormitory. It looked like the room had been subjected to a tornado. Beds were on their sides, the drapery torn and tangled; the small fireplace in the center of the room had been dragged from its chimney, and thrown into one corner; the wooden floor was charred and scratched and the window was missing, blown out from its frame by the force of whatever had ransacked the room.

'I'll be better off in the common room tonight.' Hermione thought numbly.

The room that had been her home for a fair portion of six years was unrecognizable. She pulled herself together and ran a cleaning spell over her body before transfiguring her T-shirt into pajamas and removing her jeans, shoes, socks and bra. She searched the room for a quilt that hadn't been ruined beyond repair, shrunk it with her wand and tucked it into the waistband of her pajamas.

Looking into the next dormitory, she found one bed that could be repaired; its curtains were a lost cause. With several spells, the bed was as good as new – its mattress was a mass of tangled springs and stuffing and she discarded it; the bed was shrunk so it would sit in the palm of her hand. Further searching found a mattress, which also became a miniature. Sheets were impossible to locate among the shreds of cloth; and most pillows were piles of feathers and limp cotton bags, one had survived destruction, and this too was shrunk down.

Returning to the common room, Hermione set about clearing a space near the fireplace before returning the furniture to its original size, and arranging the quilt over the bare mattress. She duplicated the pillow for comfort. She looked over in the corner and saw a dark figure in the shadows; she froze in fear for a moment before pointing her wand at the figure, before she realized it was Draco grinning at her.

"What do you want?!" she yelled in anger and embarrassment at her moment of fear.

"Calm down Hermione, it's just me!" he chuckled. Draco stepped out of the corner and into the small bit of light in the room. He had a tiny smile on his lips and Hermione immediately noticed that he didn't have a shirt on; that his jeans were now soft, grey cotton pajama trousers.

His muscled torso was in clear sight.

'Wow' she thought as he walked closer to her.

"What Hermione, never seen anybody as good looking as me?" he said, flexing his arms and posing. Draco smirked at her and laughed to himself at his own humor. Hermione, who was starting to get used to his conceited jokes, decided to play along.

"Oh yeah Draco, I've _never_ seen anyone better looking than you in my _entire_ life." She spoke with complete sarcasm, though she knew that what she was saying held more than a hint of truth. He turned to flex his back muscles, and she wondered for a moment what it would be like to hold him, hug him, to press her fingers into those shoulders…

She blushed slightly as she realized what she was thinking, her breath hitched and Draco noticed the little gasp and her flushed appearance. He stalked over to the bed, like a big cat ready to pounce on its prey. Hermione sat down, and stared up at him waiting to see what he would do.

Draco bent over and she leaned up; their lips met for a moment and then they pulled away to check each other's reaction…

… They had both liked it.

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A/N: Thanks for reading and please review.

Again, thank you so much for everyone still reading my story.

I greatly appreciate the reviews too.

I will post next chapter tomorrow. Check out my groups and my trailer, you might get some hints or previews of future chapters. ;)

-dracoyoflam


	9. A Night at Hogwarts ,2nd half edited,

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reads my fic. I hope the chapters won't take too long to get posted after this. This is the last chapter that I already had finished so now you actually have to wait for me to write and get my chapters edited. Sorry.

Special thanks to everyone who reviewed…

beautifulshamrok - Thank you :) Thank you so much for the compliment about the plot, I really appreciate that.

LoganLover8128 - Thanks I hope that you love this chapter as well. Well you probably won't find out about the castle until later but I will tell you that they will move on to go somewhere else.

jdeppgirl4 - I'm going to try to update again soon but I have to wait for my chapters to be edited. Hogwarts will be explained in the later chapters though.

reimihara21 - Well if you like the kissing then you should love this chapter. ;) I hope it's not to much for the site, I really don't want to get kicked off. Let me know what I can do on here if you have time. Thanks so much for reviewing again.

My-Edward-1992 - You'll find out what happened to everyone after they leave Hogwarts. Everything should be explained towards the ending. I hope everyone can wait that long. :)

If anyone knows the boundaries for the sexual content, Please let me know because I do plan on having more than this and I don't want to get kicked off the site. If anyone wants to explain it to me or if you have the time then please let me know and message me or something. That would be great, Thanks.

Special Special Thanks to my editor Utopia. My story is so much better because of you. You are wonderful and so smart. hugs

For everyone who is wondering what happened to everyone else, the elves and Hogwarts everything will be answered I promise. It will all be revealed in later chapters but for now it is whatever you can imagine. :)

Enjoy! (the second half is re-edited, I hope it's better. Enjoy it.)

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Draco wrapped his fingers in her long curls and pulled her back up to his hungry lips. Their tongues were playing over each other as the kiss deepened further and their tongues fought for dominance. They kissed as if each was starving and the other's lips were the most delicious repast. It was as if they had been waiting forever for this moment and now that it was here all of their patience flew out of the broken window.

Hermione could feel Draco's hand slide up her thigh, slowly pulling her shirt up. Draco dipped his fingers into her waistband and brushed his fingers over the outer seem of her knickers. He moved his lips down her neck, sucking, licking, nibbling – marking her as his with tiny bruises.

Hermione grabbed his silky hair and dragged him back to her mouth. His hand was rubbing up and down on her thigh; she couldn't help wishing he'd move closer to her desire.

Hermione pulled him down on top of her, closing the tiny bit of space that had still been between them. She could now feel his hardness pressed against her hip, and in retaliation for his bites she rolled herself against him. She was glad to hear a small moan escape his lips.

Draco shifted position so he was more leaning over her than lying on her; one leg bent up and pressing against her femininity. He could feel her warmth and wetness through the layers of thin fabric, proud that the reaction was due to him, he continued to move his leg back and forth over her sensitive, aroused flesh.

Draco could see the fervor in her dark eyes, the little sparks of accidental magic as she succumbed to the passion, her mouth opened to let out little moans and breathy whimpers.

It was his turn to moan as she slipped one hand under his waistbands and confidently grasped his length in a firm grip, she stroked him slowly, her palm tracing every inch. Between them, they managed to wriggle him out of 

his sleep attire, leaving him in his boxers. Hermione's hand returned to his masculinity, stroking faster and firmer.

Draco, arching into her shuttling motion, kissed down her neck, fingering her pajama shirt buttons. He looked up at Hermione, as if asking permission.

In an answer to his silent plea, Hermione sat up quickly and undid the buttons, slipping the shirt from her body with an enticing roll of her shoulders. She threw the top on the ground and then grabbed Draco's face to pull him back into another passionate kiss.

Draco settled onto her, aligning himself with the apex of her thighs. He was much taller than her, and had to arch up for his lips to meet hers. He rocked into her body; the silk of his boxers was a torment to himself.

Hermione opened her legs to give him more access; he ground himself against her and was welcomed by a much louder moan as he rubbed over her secret places. Hermione bent her legs up and wrapped them around his waist, pulling him down against herself firmly.

Draco would have been insane to not love the feeling of her breasts pillowed against his bare chest; and his hard length pressed against her with only three thin layers of fabric as a barrier. Even in his passion-filled mind, he knew that they were moving far too fast. He slowly moved himself away from her body, they both mourned at the loss of contact.

Hermione gave him a look of disappointment and pure wrath at being left aroused and unfulfilled; but it was soon replaced by a look of pleasure as Draco pressed a finger onto her little bud of nerves through the clothing. The flush of her cheeks and chest, the parting of ruby-red lips, the gasp of her completion and the tiny lightning bolts flashing in her eyes… it was almost enough to make him climax right there! He'd never seen a woman more beautiful or powerful as she climaxed!

He quickly grabbed the last barriers of cloth, and yanked them off so fast that she didn't even have a moment to respond. His finger was inside her, and a few moments later he added a second finger to increase the pleasure, curling them up to find that little internal bud that was the center of a woman's universe…

… What he wasn't prepared for was Hermione placing her hand into his boxer shorts and grabbing his length into her hand. As she squeezed him, she saw him close his eyes and he let out a husky moan. He looked back at her and they stared into each other's eyes, one moment of storm grey meeting rich brown; they both moved their hands in sync with each other.

Hermione could already feel herself tightening as she approached oblivion; she tried to fight it, to hold on as long as she could so they could finish together. She pushed her other hand into his shorts and grabbed his twin globes in her hand and squeezed gently, massaging them carefully.

They continued their ministrations, the passion building higher and higher. Draco felt her tighten and ripple around his fingers, and she let her head fall back in pleasure, still pumping her hand around his shaft. He finally let go so that they could reach the end together.

Hermione and Draco tumbled over the precipice together, still gently touching each other to draw out each other's pleasure until there was nothing left to give. When they both stopped and looked back at each other they trembled from what had happened, static electricity filled the air from the accidental magic that had been set free in their passion.

Hermione smiled at him and they pulled each other close, drawing up the quilt and holding each other. They laid there in silence for a long while until finally Draco cleared his throat and spoke:

"That was really good for a Virgin…"

He was cut off by her sitting up quickly, looking angry.

"What!?"

"Nothing, I just meant that for someone who doesn't have any experience in this sort of thing, you were really _really_ good. I meant it as a compliment. Why are you getting so angry?" he asked, belatedly realizing that she had her wand pointing at him.

Hermione calmed a little realizing that maybe she was over reacting a little, and replaced the wand under her pillow. She bent down closer to him and said, "I'm not a virgin." She stood up and started walking toward the door.

Draco watched as a naked Hermione left the room, her clothing following her with a snap of her fingers; he knew that she did it only to make a point, but the sway of her hips and feminine silhouette distracted him from his apology.

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The clean, clear morning light shone through the shattered window, illuminating the decimated common room. Draco opened his eyes and closed them immediately, pain shooting through his head like a blot of white hot lightning. He yelled out in agony, cradling his throbbing head in his hands.

Draco looked about him; the light of the new day illuminated the carnage of the common room. The room suddenly shifted from focus, swaying and spinning, the colors changing from red and gold to the deep green and oak of his Father's study.

_Draco gasped as an exact double of him appeared in the dark room, kneeling upon the expensive carpet. His Father walked toward him in confident strides, holding a potion out to him._

_"We depend upon you Draco, you will succeed." Sneered Lucius, handing Draco the vial._

_"I'm here, Father! I'm over here!" Draco tried to say, but the double simply bowed his replica blonde head, took the potion and thanked the senior Malfoy. The 'other Draco's' eyes never left the floor._

"What's going on?! What is this?" Draco said as more searing pain drove into his head. He screamed out in pain once more, incapable of doing anything else.

The images before him altered again, his Father's study becoming a dripping, dismal cave; patches of moss and mold clung to the wet cave walls in desperation to survive. The scratching of rodent claws could be heard in the gloom.

A dark figure laughed out loud, a harrowing cackle, "Do well Draco, we depend on you."

The image changed again, accompanied by the symphony of malevolent laughter

Draco's eyes were bloodshot, his head felt like it was splitting into a million pieces. The blonde opened his eyes to find himself back in the tattered common room, Hermione was holding his hand tightly and her eyes were filled with tears.

"Are you alright, is it over, please answer me. Don't do that again." She pressed her hand to his forehead, finding him cold and clammy to the touch.

"Hermione, it's alright. I'm alright." He croaked, his throat raw from screaming in pain.

He closed his eyes, counted to ten in his mind and opened them again, sighing in relief when the image didn't change into more of the weird visions.

'Visions, what is that all about?' He asked himself confused.

Draco had an odd expression on his face as he looked back at Hermione.

"What is it Draco?" she asked, still concerned.

'Should I tell her? I don't even know what it means yet. It's probably nothing, yeah; maybe I hit my head or something. I'm fine.' He told himself, seeing things wasn't a good sign even in the wizarding world 'Maybe it will all go away.'

"Come on Draco you can tell me if something is wrong."

"I know. It... It's nothing." He replied slowly with a dazed look in his eyes.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, really, it's nothing. Probably hit my head or something in the train and now I'm having side effects. I'm sure I'll be fine though, just give it a little time."

Hermione looked at him for a moment and rubbed her wet eyes. She wasn't really sure what to say; she _knew_ he was lying to her, but she didn't want to upset him by asking more questions.

Especially after what he just went through, whatever the Hell that was.

"Keep your secrets, Draco… but 'nothing' doesn't have you screaming in agony and thrashing around." She said quietly before moving away to let him compose himself.

(I added the last, she wouldn't just walk away and say nothing. She'd try and help where she could, she has to have the last word in this)

A little later…

"How do you know where the kitchen is?"

Hermione laughed and answered, "Well let's just say I know an old 'friend' of yours."

Draco looked at her suspiciously but blew it off a moment later.

The old friend that she was referring to was Dobby the house elf, and the only elf who would come near her after her S. P. E. W. campaign. There was plenty of good food in the pantry; but not an elf in sight.

"Draco," Hermione said as she looked over at him, "I'm sorry about last night when I yelled at you, I didn't mean it. It's just that people I really care about are gone and I don't even know if they're alright. I think that I over reacted to the whole 'Virgin' thing."

She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath before continuing, "It's just that everyone just assumes that I'm this little innocent know-it-all and I'm really not. It gets annoying sometimes. I mean, so what if I like to read a lot and keep up my grades. That doesn't mean that it's all I do."

Draco looked away as he thought to himself about how he wished he were someone that Hermione cared about… even loved. She'd shown him more affection in a few days than most people he knew had shown him in his entire life. Then it hit him.

'Oh no!' He thought.

He looked over at Hermione who was still looking at him but now with question in her eyes.

"I need to go." He didn't wait for a response, he practically ran out of the kitchen, only his injured leg holding him back.

Draco paced around the room trying hard to concentrate on what was going on. The more he thought about it though, the further and further the answers seemed to be. But he had known the answer just a short while ago when he was standing there in the kitchen with…

"Hermione! How long have you been standing there? You surprised me."

"Long enough to know that something is really bothering you. Tell me, please Draco."

Hermione longed for an answer from him. Draco decided to try and explain it to her; maybe saying it aloud would help. Besides, Hermione was dubbed as the smartest witch in an age, she'd worked out how to get past enough of the Dark Lord's plots – so maybe she could help him work it out.

Draco asked her, "Don't you find any of this weird, why all of this is happening?"

Hermione looked quickly at him and started talking without taking on breath, "Well which part are you talking about? The train crash which led to everyone missing but us? Us being attacked while walking through the woods that we're not supposed to be in? Me almost drowning and you saving me? Us finding Hogwarts attacked with no one left. No dead bodies or survivors? or are you just talking about last night?"

She paused in her rant before softening her voice's tone, but upping the sarcasm, "No Draco, I don't find any of this _weird_ at all."

Draco looked away for a moment and sighed, 'this is going to come back to hurt but I've got to say it.' He thought.

"Hermione, sure all the bad stuff is weird but it can be explained in the end… It's all a big scheme probably, of at least that's my guess – that part isn't hard to figure out, we both know this already.

"I'm talking about the part where it was only 'us' on the train, 'us' getting attacked while 'we' were walking through the forest, me saving you…" He sighed and finished, "And yes… last night.

Hermione, we hate each other. Something isn't right here." He sighed, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor.

Hermione's eyes filled with tears but she didn't let them fall just yet. "We just had a change of heart that's all. Draco, there's nothing wrong with that. If you're worried about what people would think because I'm not a pureblood like you then I guess I'm wrong about changed feelings. Yours anyway… my feelings are still for you, weather you want them to be or not." I don't understand what you're trying to say here!

She turned away from him and as she walked slowly up to the girls dormitories, she finally let her tears flow with great sadness.

'I was right' Draco thought, 'it hurt.'

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A/N: I hope that everyone liked the chapter and let me know if it was confusing at all.

Also don't forget, you can join my Yahoo! Group or my Myspace Dramione Group and I will discuss my story with you and answer any questions that you might have.

Thanks for reading and check out my trailer on youtube if you want a few hints. ;)

Please review and I will post the next chapter a.s.a.p.

-dracoyoflam

By the way, if I ever forget to add someone who reviewed at the top of the chapters, Please let me know and I am so sorry.


	10. Death Eater?

A/N: Sorry for the delay. Seems that life likes to butt in sometimes. Hopefully it will get back to normal so you don't have to wait so long next time.

Thanks so much for your patience and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Special thanks to my editor, you are so awesome and you make my story rock.

Also special thanks to:

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reimihara21 - Thanks for the answer. I actually do post on adultfanfiction. lol.

brisFH28 - Thank you so much! I will keep writing til the end, I promise. :) (even if life gets in the way sometimes.)

HouseAddiction - Sorry for the long wait, I promise to try and never take this long again. Me and my editor both ended up having a lot going on and we didn't have a chance to do anything but deal with life and it's butting in. It should be a lot quicker now though. :)

LoganLover8128 - Well if you think what he did was bad, wait until you finish this chapter. You're going to be really mad at him. sorry.  
Thanks for the review, I love to see what you think. You make me smile a lot. :D  
The house elves aren't there and that will be explained in the later chapters when everything is revealed. lol. I like trying to add mystery.

My-Edward-1992 - Sorry for the wait. I will update a lot faster now. Life interfers and I hate that. I want to read and write all day long. :) I hope you like the chapter.

.

.. Caution, Sex in this chapter so rated Mature. Please do not read this if you are under age. Thanks.

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He tried to get up the stairs to the girls dormitories but even though Hogwarts was a partially-demolished wreck, some of the magic was still there and still functioned; the stairs vanished from beneath his feet and making him fall flat on his face to slide back to the common room. After feeling the small carpet burns on his nose, chin and palms he decided that there was no way that he was going to get up the stairs-cum-slide; he wasn't going to attempt again once the slide metamorphosised into innocent-looking stairs.

Defeated by the architecture, he walked over to the bed that he had slept on and realized that Hermione must have come back to sleep after he dozed off. He didn't realize earlier, too much had occurred as he wore for him to pay attention to anything but his own agony and confusion. He lay back on the bed, his hands behind his head as he thought; he liked the thought of her sleeping next to him – odd, he'd never shared a bed with anyone before, he'd never shared much to be honest. Though, he'd happily shared a bed with Hermione Granger, Mudblood, know-it-all, pain-in-his-arse…

…A vixen who wasn't the innocent princess she was painted to be; a passionate witch who'd walked away naked to prove a point.

He turned his head into the pillow, breathed in her scent and sighed in misery. He could smell the sweetness of her body on the linens, he had the visions in his mind of their explorations. He longed for her to come back and forgive him for the things he said; and preferably for her to let him prove his forgiveness with a nice bout of make-up sex.

'Why am I so mad about her?' he thought, barely vocalising the words in his mind before something else shot through his head; the pleasant and erotic images was violently torn from his imagination and replaced with more pain wrenching visions.

They didn't cease, they continued on and on, running into each other with no break or pause. He screamed in pain, his throat raw with the agony of being trapped within his own psyche; but at the same as trying to escape a living nightmare, he was vainly trying to focus on what he was seeing.

It was as if he was flying on a broom but faster than he could possibly ever achieve; there were blurring lands and lands of different places, deserts and oceans, mountains and meadows, cities and forests; then finally there was darkness.

Everything was dark and the pain surprisingly became even worse; Draco hadn't thought there was anything more excruciating than what had already been before – he hated that he'd been proved wrong on that front. There was a small dark building and he got closer and closer, the speed of motion slowing down to a halt. He heard laughing; the same laughing that was in his last vision, the door opened and the dark figure flew at him, Draco blinked, trying to focus on the shape; fighting the agony, he opened his eyes to get one good look at the form…

… The form had peachy skin, bronze eyes spilling with tears, framed by a riot of birds'-nest curls. In panic he looked about the tattered Gryffindor common room, there was no darkness, no figure, no laughing. A wave of nausea overcame him in his confusion, and Hermione barely managed to hand him the empty log bucket from next to the fire before he wretched. Her presence left him for a moment, and he instantly slipped into a deeper panic, gasping for breath and shaking.

She returned, laying him into the recovery position on the bed, she pressed a cold cloth to his forehead and simultaneously wiped his face with a warm, sandalwood-scented flannel. She held his hand tightly, making little cooing noises that would only make sense to an infant. He continued to shake, suddenly as cold as if he'd stepped into the centre of a glacier. Hermione climbed in behind him, spooning against his back to offer comfort and warmth.

"Oh Draco, I'm sorry about earlier, you just made me so angry! But I should have been here for you, not sulking! What happened? What's wrong? I know something is going on! Tell me and I can help you. Please tell me. Please?"

Draco turned onto his back, she'd cared for him! She was cuddling him, and suddenly she was the only thing in the entire world that mattered, the centre of his universe! She'd seen him vomit and come back to clean him up afterwards!

'Oh Merlin! She's seen me throw up!' he groaned and turned away, mortified. She turned him back over, leaning over his chest and staring directly into storm-grey eyes.

"Draco, please! Talk to me! What's going on! And don't you dare say nothing – because nothing doesn't make you scream and shake! Nothing doesn't make you ill! Please? What is it? Please!" she begged him.

Grey eyes met bronze, the connection lustful. The final please broke his control and he couldn't handle himself anymore. He was about to pull her in for a kiss, but an invisible foam filled his mouth, fizzing and then dissipating.

"I'm not kissing you when you've just been sick." She giggled, trailing the back of her fingers down his cheek before leaning in once more.

The kiss was passionate and so deep with lust that they might drown in it. He pulled away from her lips and kissed her throat; Hermione let out a small, breathy, gasping moan of pleasure. Draco started to pull her shirt, slowly inching it over her stomach, it gave a moment of thought.

"Draco, what are you doing?"

"What" Draco said, "What do you think I'm doing, or should I say about to do. Isn't it obvious?" It was a wonder he could string the sentence together! He was so aroused!

She smirked and kind of laughed at the question, 'Touché' she thought.

He leaned close to start kissing again. Hermione pushed him away, her three middle fingers over his lips in self defense as she said, "No Draco, you need to talk to me about what is happening to you. What was all of that about?"

"Come on Hermione, let me explain later! Look at me Hermione. Come on."

Hermione could hardly believe it. He was right about earlier. "Draco, you know earlier when we had our argument?"

He gave her a look to tell her 'duh stupid' and he nodded his head to tell her yeas.

"Of course you remember. Well anyway, I think you might be right about us being weird. I really didn't realize it before."

Draco stood up and walked across the room. Hermione continued, "When you have your headache things I'm always taking care of you and we get closer. Maybe someone is doing this to keep up together so we can find him or her. Maybe a teacher or someone found away to use magic to keep up working together so we can find them and help them."

Draco just stared at her wanting to kiss her more and more. "Hermione, can we please talk about this later, iI REALLY/i want you right now; I promise we'll talk and discuss and debate as much as you like... LATER" he took a steadying breath and whispered, "Please, I want to feel something other than pain."

Hermione walked over to Draco, stood on her tip toes and gently brushed her lips against his in a featherlight tough. The hesitant, tender touches soon became very passionate they slowly moved over the side of the room next to a long desk that was against the wall.

Hermione backed into the wall and pulled Draco against her. Draco grabbed her hand and placed it on his crotch. "You see what you do to me, feel what you do to me."

Hermione wrapped her hand around him and squeezed. Draco moaned and pulled her shirt over her head, leaving Hermione standing in only her knickers. She hadn't put her pants on since yesterday when she took them off, they were dirty and she preferred the long T anyway. It wasn't as if anybody else would see her.

Hermione didn't like grabbing his hard length through the material; she remedied the situation by unbuttoning his pants, pulling down the zip and yanking his trousers down his firm legs. Draco stepped out of them and yanked his shirt over his head so both of them were standing there in their under garments.

Draco pushed himself against Hermione and she lifted her left leg up to wrap it around his hip. Draco didn't like the standing position very much so he grabbed Hermione under her bottom and lifted her higher on himself; Hermione automatically wrapped her legs tightly around his waist and Draco pressed her into the wall.

He moved over to the desk and sat her on top of it so he could get a good look at her breasts, pulling away from her lips to bend down and pull an already hard nipple into his mouth. He lightly sucked and nipped at the bud with his teeth, while Hermione had her head hung back moaning in pleasure.

Draco grabbed her panties and ripped them as he tried to pull them off. He looked at the scraps with confusion for an instant before he shrugged and threw the pieces onto the floor and quickly pulled his boxers off. He placed himself at the opening of her wetness.

They were staring into each other's eyes as Hermione reached down and grabbed his length. She pulled him a little towards her opening but Draco stopped her for a moment before he finally plunged himself into her.

Hermione kissed him at that exact moment and they both moaned into each other's mouth. Draco started moving in and out of her slowly at first as he whispered to her.

"Bloody hell. " He paused for a short moment as he thrust into her once more. "You're so tight, so wet, so hot. Like a fist! Like hot silk!"

Hermione smiled slightly and loved the dirty words coming from his delicious mouth. Draco gradually quickened the pace and Hermione wrapped her arms about Draco's neck to stable herself, her back arched and her head thrown back as she moaned in pleasure.

Draco grabbed her hips with both of his hands and pulled her against him every time he plunged into her, deepening each thrust plunging in as far as was possible, as if he could possibly thrust even more of himself into her.

The pace quickened, they ground their bodies into each other, both on the edge and desperate to fall into a joint oblivion. Draco was trying to wait until she came first wanting to see the same look in her eyes, just as when she came last night.

Hermione was screaming, she could feel herself tightening, the spasms filling her entire being with intense pleasure! She looked into Draco's beautiful grey eyes, the power and intensity nearly enough to make her finish, but not quite.

"Harder… Oh yes… More…" she cried between gasps and screams.

Hermione held him tightly in her arms as she felt herself beginning to orgasm. She moaned into his ear.  
"I'm coming, come with me Draco."

He loved how his name just rolled off of her tongue and mixed with a moan from her lips; it was like an artist blending colours – a beautiful sound that was definitely enough to drive him over the edge. He spilled into Hermione as they both orgasmed together.

They clung to each other for a while, gasping, sighing, trying to catch their breaths and waiting for their heart rates to slow. Draco finally pulled himself out of her, moaning at the wonderful sensation of the 'indecent feeling' of his seed slipping from her body and trailing down his length as he softened.

He dropped her feet to the ground before he lifted her bridal style to carry her to the bed. Hermione smiled up at him; her 'inner iDisney Princess/i' purring at the sensation of being carried off into the sunset; her 'inner Gryffindor lioness' was disgusted with the lack of bravery and her not standing on her own two feet.

Hermione wasn't listening to the lioness as she rested her head on Draco's shoulder as he covered them with the covers.

They were both in complete silence for what seemed like hours. Finally Hermione looked down at his abdomen and said, "Draco will you please explain to me what's wrong. I can tell that something has been bothering you. Just tell me and I can help…"

"I know I said I'd talk all you wanted afterwards, but can we back in the afterglow for just a ilittle bit/i longer?" he sighed, "It's not that I don't think I can tell you or even that I don't want your help. In fact the problem is that you can help and I really don't want you to."

Hermione's head shot up, the blissful expression of a pos-orgasmic witch was replaced with a puzzled look; and suddenly she gave him a different face that told him to explain further – or else.

"Hermione, the headaches I have… "He paused in between words to think about what to say. "I see things… I don't know why… it means something… I think."

Hermione could tell that he didn't fully understand what was going on, she calmed down and told him to take his time to try and explain what he could. He thought about what he was saying and tried to piece it all together.

"It could be a teacher." He told her.

Hermione still didn't understand. She thought of herself as pretty smart but Draco was really starting to make her wonder if she was right about herself. She felt so stupid just laying there listening to him try to explain over and over again.

"Hermione, I think that the things I see mean something. I think they're clues to where everyone is being kept and I'm pretty sure that I know where to find them."

"How would you know, what did you see? Did you see Harry and Ron? Are they alright?"

Draco winced at their names. He hated Potty and Weasel no matter how much he liked Hermione, perhaps even loved her. 'No.' He thought, 'Malfoy's don't fall in love. We do what we need to and have what we want from who we want. Hermione is just a bit more than that. Yes, that's all.'

"Hermione I didn't see anybody, not really. I just saw how to get there. I think I've been there before actually. I'm pretty sure it's where my Father runs deals and business with all his death eater chums. What, don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about. I know that you knew my Father is a death eater."

"Yeah" She said, "But I never expected you to admit it to anyone, aren't you afraid I'll say something?"

Hermione smirked at Draco and stared at him with her big brown eyes. She wasn't surprised when Draco looked right back at her with a smirk on his face as well.

"Well no, not really. Especially since there's no one you could tell, no one is here remember."

Hermione sat up and stared out of the broken window for a moment before turning towards Draco to ask him a question. "Uh, Draco."

He sat up and looked at her waiting to hear what she was about to say to him.

"Well umm, I was wondering. Well your Father is a death eater and all of his friends. Well, your friends are too really; well what I'm trying to ask really is…"

"Hermione if you say well one more time I think you'll hit a new all time record. Just ask."

She kind of gave a little laugh and sighed, "Are you a death eater or considering being one ever?"

Draco stood up and walked across the room, bending down to grab his trousers and quickly pulled them on.

"I didn't mean to offend you, I'm sorry. You don't have to answer, I shouldn't have said anything." She babbled.

He turned to face her and in almost a shout he replied, "You know, I hate people trying to force this on me! Everyday my Father is asking me… 'how about today or how about right now. It only hurts for a moment and then the pain goes away. Come on it's a chance of a lifetime', he says to me. Well I'm bloody tired of it!"

Hermione was almost scared now and definitely wished that she hadn't said anything. Sometimes her curiosity got the better of her, and at times like that she paid for some of the things she said. "Draco I'm sorry. Just forget that I ever said anything."

She barely got the words out of her mouth.

"Hermione you don't get it. It's not really my choice if I want to be what my Father is. He's pushing me in his direction every single day. He's been pushing me since I was out of nappies! Well let me tell you something missy, the pain doesn't go away like he says it will. I know firsthand! He might not feel it anymore but the people around him do, my Mother and me. Merlin! I would never want to put the people that I cared about through all the shit and torment that he has put us through!"

Hermione had silent tears falling down her face equally sad for him and terrified of the way he was acting. She just wanted him to stop yelling and let her comfort him. She stood up and walked over to where Draco was pacing the floor in anger, stomping steps that might just transfer the force of his anger into the floor.

"Draco… ahh!"

Before she knew what had happened, Hermione was on the floor with her hair across her face and her eyes wide, her mouth was gasping as tears started to roll down her cheeks even more. Draco stood there for a moment to let it sink in.

"Hermione, Hermione! Wait! Stop! Please! I…"

She stood up fast, grabbing her clothes and ran out of the room with her hand on her now very red and slightly swollen cheek. She ran through the school and up many staircases until she finally got to the astronomy tower.

She quickly pulled on her shirt and used her wand to fix her torn panties before pulling them on. She sat down next to an open window and let tears fall down her cheeks.

Her cheek stung every time a seemingly boiling tear hit it, but she just couldn't stop crying. It wasn't the pain that kept her eyes full of tears, it was the fact that…

'I can't believe I just hit her. I didn't mean to. I was so angry and she came up right behind me. I can't believe this, I have to find her. I hope that she will forgive me.'

Draco kept thinking this over and over again as he started his search for Hermione.

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A/N: Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think.  
Also I have a couple of questions...  
Would you like to know who Hermione has had sex with?  
And Someone will be entering the story soon, who do think it will be?  
It will probably only be in one chapter but it will be soon.

Also, if you would like to see something special happen in the story, let me know and I will try to fit it in.  
Like if you want a little something just to say it was from you or if there's something in particular that you want someone to say.  
It can't really be anything that will influence the story to much because I already have a lot of stuff set for the future chapters.  
I'd love to see your opinions and suggestions.

Thanks,  
dracoyoflam


	11. Frustrated Hermione

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A/N: Thanks for being so patient. Sorry for the wait. Me and my editor have both been very busy and we'll try to get the chapters out as fast as we can.

Well that's it from me, enjoy!

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Special Thanks to...

Flurry of Freezing Flames - OMG, thanks so much. That means A LOT to me. I really appreciate that. wow.

I'll check out your story as soon as I have a spare moment. lol. I promise.

I will keep giving more until the end and who knows, maybe I'll still keep going. lol.

Kool. Let me know what your friends think. That's really neat, thank you for doing that for my story.

Well I'll stop now. lol. enjoy and let me know what you think. :)

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Draco had searched approximately half of the school grounds before he gave up and decided to go back to the common room to rest and think. He lounged on the bed, his head propped up against the headboard.

'I'll just close my eyes for a moment.' He thought before falling into a deep slumber.

Hermione had stopped crying, her eyes were burning and itching as she sat at the broken window looking out at the unused Quidditch field. Oh how much she missed Harry and Ron! She wished that she could wake up and find that this had all been a terrible nightmare! Just a dream, a figment of her subconscious.

But it wasn't a dream and she was reminded of that wherever she looked at the damaged castle, and listened to its silence due to the absence of people. The castle reminded her more of a solemn crypt than the dynamic school environment.

She hated being alone, being away from her friends – but being unable to help them felt even worse! She was used to helping them, to pulling them out of the holes they' dug for themselves! She truly hated feeling so useless! She couldn't handle the thought of something happening to the people that she cared about; especially as she wasn't there to sort everything out afterwards.

Hermione leaned against the wall, staring out at the pitch. Her thoughts drifted to the happy memories she had of this school before ithis/i happened…

... Harry and Ron. Where were they? Were they hurt? Were they dead? Her eyes started to fill with tears and when she couldn't hold them any longer she at last let them drop down her face.

In the meantime…

Draco's dream almost seemed real. He was back at that house again from his last vision, only this time he was able to go inside. The house was very dark and dirty but it had an ominous feeling to it. There was a filth that was more substantial than the dust and dank… something foul lived here.

The house had minimal furniture, cracked, broken and uncared for; the carpeting was just as dark as the walls, only the threadbare patches of filthy grey breaking the gloom. There was so little light that it would be easy to walk into a wall or piece of broken furniture because you couldn't see.

Suddenly he realized he wasn't alone. He walked with his Father through the house and finally met another being in one of the dark hallways.

The being was dressed in monotonous black, a long black cloak trailed behind him like a sinister mockery of a wedding dress trail. Draco saw the being's skin glowing faintly in the darkness, and probably would have made a remark about the odd appearance, had it not been the Dark Lord himself he was standing before.

Draco would have been lying if he'd said he was unaffected. He was terrified of the man, if 'man' is what you could have called him. The man's face was distorted, flattened, like a snake. His nose was almost completely flat, slits opened to reveal crimson eyes.

Draco found himself to too distracted by the Dark Lord's appearance, he'd never been this close to him before. He could see the faint shadows around the scales on his cheekbones, the forked tongue that flicked as he spoke, ears that didn't protrude like a normal human…he didn't hear anything that the two men had said to each other.

The next thing he knew, they were in a room just as gloomy as the rest. It was full of figures in dark robes with their faces covered with the skull masks to maintain anonymity.

His father was talking out to everyone in the room but Draco could only barely make out some of the words.

i"We will be watching… The plan will succeed I guarantee you all… she will fall, no doubt."/i

This was making no sense to Draco, what was he talking about?

i"He will… she will be vulnerable to our powers… defeat. We will have victory for our lord."/i

Draco was only catching about half of what he was saying. He couldn't quite make out the rest of what he was saying. It was like he was hearing the conversation underwater, the other words were slurred or garbled in his hearing. It finally hit Draco what his father and 'The Lord' had been blabbing about as if they had said it again just so he would hear them.

i"Someone pure of heart, Harry Potter will die to insure our victory against her… this potion will help you my son. This will make it easier to do your part."/i

Everything went black and he awoke in a cold sweat and had absolutely no idea what it all meant. His neck hurt from the position he'd fallen asleep in. He'd only wanted to close his eyes for a moment, he'd been asleep for almost an hour!

'What does all this mean?' he thought, wishing he had Granger's logical mind… 'Wait! iHermione/i' he thought, getting up and resuming his search for her.

He searched in every part of the castle that he was able to get to, presuming that if he couldn't get into a room, that she couldn't either. After three hours, he started to fear the possibility that she had left Hogwarts without him, he decided to check the one place that he hadn't reached yet.

He finally made it up the stairs of the astronomy tower to think about his nauseatingly strange dream. What did it all mean? Who was going to fall? What's did a pure heart have to do with potty Potter? Why was it ialways/i about ihim/i, there were much more capable and dangerous wizards in the world – but the Dark Lord was… obsessed with Potter!

He saw her as he walked into the room. Hermione had fallen asleep by the windowpane on the opposite side of the room, she leant against the cold stone near the jagged edge of the glass, and she was slowly sliding towards the sharp edge of the window's remains. Draco slowly walked over to her and picked her up gently in his sturdy arms.

'Its only to stop her scratching her face more on the wall and poking out an eye on the window!' he thought to himself.

She sighed in her sleep and turned her head towards his chest, snuggling into his warmth; one of her arms crept around his waist.

'Wow' He thought. 'She is so beautiful when she sleeps; she looks just like a nymph.'

He just stood there looking at her face, even with the scratches from the castle wall that had been her pillow, he had to admit she was pretty. It had taken him a long time to admit that when she wasn't trying to be a know-it-all, that she was actually a fine figure of a witch. She wasn't one for the latest diet or the newest fashions! She was sensible with her body and respected it.

He'd noticed her figure, but had never noticed how obviously pretty her face was and he hated that he hadn't seen it before.

Soon after…

He laid her down on the bed in the common room, and watched her sleep for a few moments more before shaking the dust from a blanket and covering her up and tucking her in. He sat next to her, watching her chest rise and fall with every breath… he was somewhat surprised to feel something inside of himself that he had never felt before.

He wasn't sure if he liked feeling those things, and decided ignoring them and keeping busy was a better plan than trying to work out what these odd flutterings of emotion were, but he couldn't ignore them!

He slowly stood up and left the room to head for the kitchen. He grabbed what food he could and packed it into a little bag he had found to bring upstairs for Hermione and himself. He pulled a small cloth from his pocket and packed it full of ice before he started back for the common room. He sat out all of the food and other items on a table that he had just spent the past few minutes repairing and cleaning.

He knew that nothing short of a miracle would cause Hermione to forgive him, but he wanted to take care of her the best he could before she woke up to find him there with her.

He slowly walked over to Hermione and very carefully placed the cloth full of ice onto her already bruised and slightly swollen cheekbone, she had a black eye on one side and scrapes from the stonework down the other. As soon as he placed the cloth on her face, she woke up and looked him in the eyes.

At first he thought that maybe she was about to smile but then the look in her eyes changed. He could tell that he was about to get it so he tried to calm her before she did anything… painful.

Hermione sat up so fast that she practically fell out of the bed and Draco stood so quickly that he practically fell over from tripping over his feet. Their wands were both drawn and aimed at each other.

"What are you doing Malfoy?! Leave me alone, I can't believe that you would actually have the nerve to try and speak to me again after what you did. You're actually trying to touch me… what is wrong with you?! Leave now!" she said with a calm voice, quiet and menacing. Harry and Ron knew better than to argue when she used 'that voice'… Draco didn't. He hadn't associated 'that voice' with barely suppressed rage, he'd associated it with being sleepy and a bit upset.

"Hermione, I can explain…"

A very pissed off Hermione cut him off, "Don't even try to call me by my name! You have lost that right! You are not even iclose/i to being good enough to call me anything! Go away now, leave me alone!" Her voice was still calm, her wand hand steady; but the flashing sparks in her eyes gave him an indication of just how enraged she really was with him.

Draco walked backwards over to the door, not turning his back to her, It was an eternity before he finally opened his mouth to speak, he hung his head as he thought of something to say.

"What are you doing? Leave!" She hissed in frustration.

Draco was slightly less depressed at the fact that Hermione probably couldn't see his face, because much to his surprise he actually had tears in his beautiful grey eyes.

"Her...umm, I just wanted to let you know before I go that I'm so incredibly sorry. I mean… errr… there aren't good enough words that I can even use to describe how sorry I am… you know, for what I did. If it helps, I didn't mean to do it and if I could take it back I would do it without hesitation." He paused for a moment and then continued, "All I want to do is comfort you right now and I can't because I'm the one who has created the discomfort."

Hermione stared at him and felt herself getting more frustrated by the minute. "Honestly, I could care less about what you have to say right now so if you could just leave me alone, that would be great."

Hermione was giving him a death glare, and Draco was honestly glad that looks couldn't kill. She waited for him to finally walk out of her sight. Draco took a step like he was actually going to turn leave, but before he went any further he froze and looked her in the eyes as he spoke his last (rehearsed on the way back from the kitchens) words to her.

"Hermione, I know that you're mad at me and I don't blame you. You have every right to be mad at me right now, but before you decide that you hate me I just wanted to let you know something…"

He stopped and changed his body composure to something that Hermione couldn't read because she had never seen it before, she'd never seen Malfoy talk to his shoes. He wouldn't look at her, but evidently his footwear were wonderful to converse with! His lack of bravery in facing her rankled.

Draco took another deep breath and continued in a whisper, "Hermione, I… I think I might love you. I think, I'm not really sure what it feels like to be honest. People have said that love is a beautiful thing that makes you as light as air. People have said that when you hurt the one you love that you'll feel the hurt tenfold… I hurt so badly when I see you angry at me! Its as if I struck myself… but when I'm with you, everything feels like it will be alright – even though I know it isn't.

"I think I might love you more than anything in this world, more than anything in existence… I've nothing to compare this to! I think this is odd to say the least! I've never actually loved anyone before, let alone said it… Well I just had to tell you this before I left you here by yourself… erm… Goodbye." With these last words said, Draco turned on his heel and walked briskly, almost running out of the tower and down the stairs without looking back.

If he'd have looked back, he'd have seen Hermione sat there trying to decide if she had been dreaming or not.

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Hermione stayed in the tower by herself for hours thinking about what to do and how she should handle the situation. Finally she couldn't take the pain of her cheek or the problem with Draco. She summoned some sleeping potion and was glad to have the vial fly into her hand! Atleast something had survived the devastation! She read the label and was pleased to see the almost illegible script of Professor Snape, equally pleased to read the potion hadn't past its 'drink by date'. She drank down the entire potion in one big swallow, and sleepily decided that she would approach Draco later, after she woke.

Later on…

Hermione ended up sleeping through the rest of the evening and most of the night before she finally awoke up to find that she was still alone and a little cold. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and walked down from the tower to the bathroom. She turned the knobs on the shower wall and made herself some comfortably warm water to shower in. She stripped off her clothes and slowly slid into the warm bath. At least ithis/i bathroom still had running warm water – even if the bubbles didn't work.

The water felt wonderful as it soothed her aching muscles and washed away her worries for the moment. She loved the feel of the water swirling around her soft body. Slowly she put her head back, letting the water soak through her long hair.

Hermione thought to herself, 'oh, there's nothing else in the world that could feel better at this moment!'

At this thought she stood up from the water, frozen like a deer in headlights. 'Wait.' She thought, 'The best feeling is the way I felt when Draco told me…'

She couldn't stop the warm feelings when she whispered lightly, "…He loves me."

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A/N: Thanks for reading and Please leave reviews. They're very inspiring. :)

I will post the next chapter as soon as I can.


	12. Interruptions

Chapter 12: Interruptions

Draco was getting all the things he needed together and had changed his clothes. He had everything he needed for his trip... 'Everything except Hermione' he thought.

He decided that when Hermione didn't answer him back when he had said he loved her, that she doesn't love him. So he was off by himself to find that house and figure out what was going on. He knew he had to go, he could feel it, but he also had a feeling that Hermione needed to go to but obviously she wouldn't go with him. Draco decided that she would be safer at the castle by herself other than going with him anyway.

This is when Hermione finally found him. "There you are..."

She trailed off as she saw that he was just starting to walk out the front doors of the school with all of his things packed onto his body in one way or another.

"Where do you think you're going? Especially without me! Get back here!"

Draco turned around and gave her a weird look, like 'what the hell, you have problems' kind of look. Then he realized what she was wearing and couldn't help but to smirk a little bit. Hermione had just gotten out of the shower, obviously, and all she had on was a very small, thin robe. It was like a silky fabric and it was short enough that if she bent over just a little he would be able to see some private areas.

The front wasn't closed all the way up because the tie around her waist wasn't tight enough to keep the whole thing together. "Draco, where are you going?"

"Oh, uh... I have somewhere that I need to go, after I permanently install this image into my brain."

Hermione looked at herself and realized that more of her was showing than she thought and realized what exactly the image was that he wanted to save. "No, Draco. I need to tell you something. Please, come back up stairs with me."

Draco wasn't sure what was going on. Earlier that day Hermione was so mad that she could've killed a whole zoo with the looks she was sending out in his direction. Now she's asking him to go back upstairs with her, it made no sense. Draco sighed and looked Hermione in the eyes then asked, "You're not going to hex me or anything are you?"

Hermione looked down and laughed. She looked back up at him and answered, "No silly, I just wanted to talk to you that's all. So come on."

Draco still wasn't sure if it was safe to follow her but he figured that whatever happens he probably deserves for what he did earlier, even if it was an accident. So he walked over to her to follow her up the stairs but Hermione went towards the back of him and slightly pushed him to go up the stairs in front of them. "Draco Malfoy, you don't actually think that I'm going to walk up those stairs in front of you after those looks you were just giving me. I think it would be a little unsafe for me to be in front of you, on stairs, higher than you. So go ahead, you know where the common room is."

Draco smirked and started walking up the stairs ahead of Hermione. They didn't say anything the whole way up the common room so it gave them both some time to think. Hermione was thinking about what she was going to say to Draco and he was thinking about what she was going to do to him. He still didn't know what to expect when he got up there.

'Is she playing with me to get me back or is she being serious?' He asked himself as they reached the common room.

Hermione started when they entered and Draco turned around to face her. "I'm not going to search around for the words like you did so here it goes... Draco...I...."

Hermione was suddenly stopped by a silencing charm from Draco. "Did you hear that?"

He asked as he walked very slowly over to her. When he reached her she pulled back a hand and punched him hard in the arm. "Ouch...Hermione stop. I'll fix it; I just thought I heard something while you were talking. I'm sorry." He whispered.

He reversed what he did and apologized to her even more, beginning to speak normally now. Then they both stopped in silence when they heard something out in the hallway. They both gave scared looks to one another and then they both pulled out their wands.

Draco thought to himself, 'Where did she pull that from?' then they heard something again.

"Uh... Who is it?" Hermione asked loudly towards the noise.

"Hermione what the hell are you thinking?" He whispered, "Whatever it is isn't going to answer you, it's probably going to eat you."

Just as soon as he finished, a voice answered back, "It's me Hermione, It's me."

They heard a loud thunk outside the door and they slowly walked towards it to see who this voice belonged to. They cautiously walked out the door and what they saw was a shock to both of them.

It was the youngest redhead in the Weasley family, it was Ginny.

They picked her up and brought her inside the common room and laid her on the bed in the middle of the room. Draco and Hermione walked over and sat on a torn up couch, Draco looked over at Hermione. Her eyes were filled with tears and Draco could tell that she really didn't want to cry in front of him.

"Hermione she's going to be fine. I didn't see anything wrong with her, she's just exhausted. She needs sleep, that's all, don't worry."

"Draco that's not the problem, I already knew that. What I don't know is how she got away." She sighed deeply and continued, "How did she get away and not Harry or Ron, where are they, huh, where are they? That's what I would like to know."

She had finally let her tears go now and they were flowing like waterfalls. Draco pulled her into a hug and let her cry on his shoulder while he thought to himself. 'Why does it always have to be about stupid Potty and Weasel, I bet that if I disappeared right now that she wouldn't even notice or care."

At the same time, Hermione was thinking the complete opposite, 'What would I do without you Draco. I would be so lost, I love you so much.'

She remembered earlier and lifted her head up to speak to him. "Draco, I was going to tell you about something very important before Ginny showed outside the door way. I'm sorry about earlier when I was so mad after what you told me. I understand that what happened was an accident and that you would never hurt me intentionally."

She paused for a moment to take a deep breath then she continued, "I went to find you to tell you..."

She paused again and looked him over and realized that he had things packed on his body like he was going to be gone forever. "Where are you going?"

Draco gave her a look before he replied, "You had me come up here just so you could ask me where I was going?"

"Well no but I just realized..."

She was cut off again by Draco, he seemed very angry and... hurt? "You just realized that I was about to leave you here. You just realized that I wasn't going to be around anymore. For some reason I'm not very shocked that you wouldn't notice or icare/i if I left!"

He stood up and as he reached the door Hermione called to him but not too loud so she wouldn't wake Ginny. "Draco, wait, I love you!"

Draco froze mid-walk. He turned around and looked her in the eyes. "What? You do?"

He asked as if something completely impossible just happened.

"Yes, I do. Draco I love you so much..."

Draco looked down and asked her, "What about Harry and Ron? You love them too?"

Hermione stood and replied in a softer voice. "Yes I do love them, but in a different way. I love them like a family loves each other. Do you understand?"

Draco looked up again. "No, I really don't get it. I told you Hermione, I don't know love. I've never truly felt it before now. I don't think anybody in my family has."

"Come on Draco, not even for your mother?"

"Well, there were times that I thought I might love her but I know she never loved me the same way. If she would have loved me then she wouldn't have stayed with my father. Hermione, I'd rather not talk about this right now if that's alright."

"Sure, that's fine. But at least try to understand what I mean about them and you. I love you in a much more intimate way, like a couple thing. Me and my friends, I love them like that, friends."

She looked at him with eyes begging for him to understand.

"Okay, Hermione fine. And I honestly don't know where I was going earlier."

"Then why were you leaving?" She asked.

He walked back over to where she was standing by the couch and sat back down. Hermione followed his lead and sat next to him. He began to speak once more.

"There is a place that I feel like I need to go; somehow I know how to get there even though I don't remember actually being there before. It makes no sense but I have to go Hermione. I know I have to go. It's important."

Hermione was the one to be confused now but she didn't show any sign of it towards Draco.

"Well then, I'm going with you."


	13. Spell

Chapter 13: Spell

Hermione and Draco had been walking for hours now when Hermione finally decided to break the terrible silence. "You know, I feel really bad for just leaving Ginny like that. I mean what if she really needs us or something and we won't be there for her."

Draco looked at her awkwardly and then he replied, "Hermione, she'll be fine, you just worry too much. Trust me. Everything will work out for her."

Draco could see the doubt in Hermione's face so he continued, "She's got plenty of food and a place to sleep. She said that she understood and could find the things that she would need. Bloody hell Hermione, you even transfigured stuff into clothes for her so that she would be clean."

Hermione sighed and decided to drop it because there was no way that they were going back and she was pretty sure that Draco didn't actually give a crap what happened to Ginny while they were gone.

He was probably just trying to shut her up so that he wouldn't have to talk about a Weasley anymore. 'Trust me, he says.'

She was thinking to herself now about the words that she didn't have a clue what to do with. 'Trust me. What if I don't, then what? What if I trust you too much?'

Hermione continued to think to herself for many hours. They both walked for most of the day, some parts that they walked through were more of forest areas and some were more like desert. It didn't really make sense but she didn't really care much to think about it.

Draco was right about one thing, he definitely seemed to know where they were going, neither of them understood this fact but they both knew that they should probably go anyway.

She kept thinking about his words until her thoughts were interrupted by Draco's voice. "Hermione look."

He pointed at a broken down house in front of them. It was a big house that looked as if it was beautiful somewhere at an earlier time. Some of the windows were boarded while others were left the way they were, broken and shades hanging raggedly out of the broken glass.

The house was very dark now but she could tell that there was a lighter color underneath the darkness, she had no idea what the color was but she was sure that it was much nicer to look at.

Hermione stood there gasping while Draco slowly walked forward to check out the perimeter. He couldn't figure out why he was there or how he knew the way, but he knew that this was a very important place to be right now.

"Draco, my son."

Draco spun around and saw his father with a firm grip on Hermione and with one hand wrapped firmly across her mouth. "Wonderful job son, well done."

Draco could see Hermione's face wrinkle into questioning and he could feel his own frown up with his own. "What are you talking about, what job?"

Lucius frowned a little more than usual and glanced down and Hermione, his face became distorted in disgust. "It must not have worn off yet, its okay Draco, we'll help you remember."

He pointed his wand at Draco and as he did Draco fell to the ground with his hands on his head. The pain was the most intense thing that he had ever felt, he started screaming in agony. While he was lying there in pain as his father started to pull Hermione towards the familiar house.

She started screaming and tried to get to Draco but it was beyond impossible to get away and actually be able to do anything at this moment, especially when her wand had been taken away, so finally she quit trying to get away and she started to cry for Draco and how helpless she felt as she glanced one last look at him.

When they entered the house Hermione couldn't believe how disgusting it looked. She expected it to be nice like the Malfoy Manor must be. The walls were so dark that she might have run into them by accident. She could hardly see anything as she was being dragged down dark hallways and through more rooms.

The rooms all looked alike except for the different pictures of Draco that were scattered on some of the walls. Hermione discovered that this house was probably owned by Draco's father and that Draco had probably been right about the Death Eater meetings being here.

Hermione glanced around at the pictures very quickly as she was pulled through the rooms and noticed that there wasn't a single one of him smiling in the whole house, she wondered why at first and then she started to worry for herself. 'What are they going to do to me?' She thought.

She was yanked down a flight of stairs that she nearly fell down because she was being pulled so quickly now. They entered another dark hallway and she could just barely make out bodies lying in what looked like prison cells. She could hear some of them breathing, some of them were crying and some, well she didn't want to think about it. Finally a boy with dark hair came running up to the bars of his cell and he was screaming Hermione's name though tears. "Hermione, Hermione, What happened? Why are you here?"

"Shut up you wailing brat!"

Hermione couldn't believe it, it was Draco's voice but... How could this happen?

What happened to the Draco the she's been with all this time, the Draco that she had slept with in the Gryffindor common room. She didn't understand how this could be the same person.

"So Hermione, we finally caught you. So sorry but your time is just about up. You see it's a long story really but I'm sure you'll have enough time to listen once we have you where we want you."

Hermione couldn't believe it, she was in shock. How did this happen? How could she be so stupid and how could she have let him hurt her like this? They brought her into a dark room with a few candles lit for seeing purposes. The room was completely empty except for a little chair in the middle of the room.

They pushed her onto the little chair and started to tie her to it. They strapped down her arms with chains that they summoned. Her legs were tied to the legs of the chair. They even went as far as trying to tie a rag around her head to cover her mouth to keep her quiet, since she was crying so much over everything that just happened in the past five minutes.

As Lucius went to wrap the rag over her mouth, Hermione bit his hand as hard as she could manage. Lucius had to fight a little to remove his injured hand, which was starting to bleed badly.

The wound caused him to drop the rag but it also caused him to smack Hermione across the face as hard as he could manage without taking her head off.

Hermione's head was facing over her shoulder with her curls spread across her red cheek bone. Her mouth was slightly open as if to cry in pain but instead she did the opposite.

Hermione closed her mouth tightly and didn't cry another tear. She didn't want to give him the pleasure of seeing her cry out in pain. Lucius who was losing more blood by the second finally stormed out of the room letting out curse words that Hermione had never even heard.

Hermione slowly pulled her head up and noticed that Draco was still in the room with her. He was standing in front of her now, he wasn't moving a muscle.

Hermione didn't dare look up at him; she didn't think that she could keep from crying anymore if she saw his face.

Finally he quickly left the room and she hung her head in silence. She let one tear fall down her bruising cheek as she thought about everything that had happened since the Hogwarts Express crashed and everyone disappeared.

She sat in the room by herself for what seemed like many hours before someone entered the room and summoned a chair to sit on. She didn't even look up to see who it was, she guessed all on her own.

It was like she had grown so accustomed to the sound of his walking in the time that they spent together that she knew right away who it was.

Draco stared at her for a long time before he finally started to talk. "So, did you really think that I loved iyou/i?"

She sat there in complete silence and didn't move a muscle or show any sign that she was listening, she wasn't even crying anymore which only slightly surprised him.

"Like I said, it is a long story but I'll make it short to save precious time, I do have things to do you know."

Draco stopped for a very short moment to read Hermione but didn't understand how she was having no reaction to him being there. He figured it must be the Gryffindor in her but he knew all too well that it was just Hermione being Hermione.

"My father and some of his goons put a spell on me to forget everything that I was doing for them, the spell was also supposed to make me fall in love with you... or at least make an illusion that I was."

He stopped again to see if she would say anything about this but she continued to stay still in silence. So he started again.

"The plan was for me to lure you here without even knowing what I was doing. It turns out that all those little headaches were some painful reminders of what I was supposed to be doing. They kept me close to you so that you would follow me here. You were actually wrong about something, it wasn't the teachers. I guess there's a first time for everything huh."

He sighed and started talking a little faster. "It's kind of funny really, why we did this to you and everyone else. Or at least I think it's a bit funny, but then again who would have thought this after everything that has happened at Hogwarts."

Draco smirked a little for a short moment and then his expression went back to the unreadable one he had just before it. "You see, your stupid friend Potter isn't the all powerful wizard that's supposed to kill The Lord after all... you are."

Hermione let out a deep sigh, almost a grunt and finally looked up then quickly looked away from Draco's face. She was looking out the door of the dark room wanting so bad just to run away.

"That doesn't even make since, if you're going to lie you should do it better." Hermione's face was still emotionless and her cheek bone was now visibly swollen and very bruised.

"Listen to me; you're supposed to kill him." Draco said in almost a whisper.

When Hermione didn't respond he got upset and started talking much louder.

"That's why they wanted you here, don't you understand. They're going to kill you Hermione!"

Hermione looked up at Draco, "I know they will… But I don't believe any other word that you say."

"Damn it Hermione! You have to get out of here." He rushed to her and started to untie her.

Hermione quickly stood out of the chair. She started rubbing her wrists to ease the pain away.

"Why would you help me?"

"Because he loves you of course." Lucius said as he pulled out his wand.

He flicked his wand and Hermione flew hard into a wall.

Draco stood his ground, he searched for his wand but unfortunately it was gone.

"You don't really think that we couldn't see through your acting… did you?"

Lucius smirked at his son. Death Eaters rushed into the room with another chair.

They tied Draco down like they did Hermione earlier. They moved towards Hermione but Lucius motioned them away.

"I'll take care of this one. You're all dismissed."

He pulled Hermione up off the ground and sat her on the chair. He quickly tied her down and finally finished with a laugh in Draco's direction.

Draco sat in silence for half an hour before Hermione finally woke up. She tugged at the rope for a moment as she woke. She leaned up and moaned to herself.

She sat her head back against the chair with a terrified look on her face.

"Hermione, you're okay. Look at me."

Hermione turned her head slowly to face him. She was surprised to see that he was tied up just like she was. She began to panic.

"No, this isn't right. What did you do? You should've just left me alone."

She let her head drop and let a loud sob come from her lips. She could deal with the fact that she was going to die, it was terrible but she would deal. She would be strong.

"No!" She sobbed aloud again.

'This can't be happening, not Draco. He has to be okay. I love him too much to sit here and watch him hurting.'

"Hermione, please look at me."

She took in a deep breath then looked him in the eye.

"Hermione, you're going to be alright. I promise."

"What?!" She shook her head in protest.

"I don't care. I want you to be safe. Draco, I love you."

He was surprised to hear the words come out of her mouth but he of course felt the same way.

Lucius finally came back into the room. He let out another small laugh.

"Draco… did you really think that this little Bitch could defeat our Lord? She's nothing. We didn't tell you our full plan because we knew you were weak… just like your mother."

Draco's face contorted in shock but he said nothing.

Lucius leant forward to look Hermione in the face, "I can't wait for you to see what we have in store for you."

Lucius smirked at her but was shocked when she spit in his face.

He pulled out his wand and pointed it at his face. When the spit was gone, he looked very angry.

He turned on his heal and walked out of the dark room.


	14. Hurting

A/N: This chapter took me awhile to write and I hope it was worth all of the hard work. Please review to let me know what you think. I also just want to take a minute to thank all of you. Thank you reader and reviewers. If you weren't so good to me, I don't think I would've made it this far.  
I want to make a special announcement...  
I am going to make this story into a sequel!

Well, I'm going to leave you with that and let you think it over, because I'm going to want input of course. :)

_-_-_-_-_-

Hermione was in so much pain that it was hard to breath. The Cruciatus curse was being used on her and Lucius was loving it.

She couldn't help but to scream in pain. Draco was next to her crying and screaming in protest.  
When Lucius finally stopped the Cruciatus curse, Hermione slumped forward with a gasp.

Lucius turned toward Draco, "Oh, don't worry. We have different plans for you."  
He smiled as he walked out of the room, summoning his group of death eaters.

" Draco… I love you." She paused to take a breath.

"You have to survive this. I love you too much to watch you die." She finished with a tear falling down her face.  
"Hermione, please… don't talk like that. We'll make it through. I love you too much to see you die too. Don't you know that?"

"Of course I know, but I also know that I'm not going to make it. He has made sure of that."

"No, Hermione. Don't…" He was cut off by Hermione. "Yes. This is what is going to happen. I am going to die."

Draco sobbed at her words but she continued. "You will survive, you will live. I want you to promise that you will try. You have to promise that you will live a long and happy life."

"How can you ask me to do that? You know that I can't."  
They were both crying loudly but Hermione wasn't letting this go.  
"I know that you can and you will."

Lucius reentered the room with odd looking tools and his wand revealed.  
"I doubt that. From where I'm standing, you're both going to die."

Hermione looked up at him; her face was angry and covered in sweat and tears.  
"I'd like to see you try. I'm a lot tougher than you seem to think."

She glanced at Draco and right away he knew what she was doing. She was sacrificing herself so that he would have a chance to find a way out. Tears were flowing down his cheeks but he didn't say a word; he didn't even know what he could say.

Lucius started hurting Hermione in ways that she couldn't have imagined. She tried to stay tough and quiet but the pain was so much that she couldn't help screaming out.

She was hurting in more ways than one. She was in so much pain but her true hurting came from the flashing thoughts of Draco.

She thought of all the great moments that they had together.  
She was dying and all she could think about was him. She truly did love him.  
She had flashes of when they were by the river and Draco saved her life. She thought about how they slept naked and he saw her body. She thought of how they were together intimately and how she wished they could've been together longer.

She turned toward Draco, the best that she could. Their eyes met and they both knew how much they loved each other without a doubt.

Hermione let out one last wail of pain before she finally fell limp without a breath.  
Hermione Jean Granger was dead.  
She would never experience anything ever again, it was all over.

Draco screamed loudly in frustration and pain. He was hurt more than he could ever explain.  
He just lost the love of his life and he wanted to kill the person responsible – Lucius Malfoy.

A bright light of mist and beauty burst out of Hermione and before anyone knew what happened, Draco was free. The ropes were gone and so was the light.  
Draco stood quickly and fought with Lucius. They rolled around on the ground trading blows where ever they could reach.

They were grunting as they tried to overpower each other.  
Draco landed a powerful blow to his father's face that almost knocked him out.  
Draco rushed to the table of instruments and grabbed his father's wand.  
He stood over his father and spook slowly.

"Do you want to know why I finally beat you? It's because I had something really worth fighting for."  
He held in a sob as he continued. "You were fighting for devotion. I am fighting for love."  
He pointed the wand at his father and finally spoke the words that he never dreamed he would use. "Avada Kadavra!"

His father's body went limp but his face was frozen in shock.  
Draco didn't pause; he rushed out of the room and started releasing students and teachers.  
When he released Harry, he grabbed him by the arm and spoke quickly.  
"Harry, I need your help."

Harry looked surprised but he stopped and replied, "What is it, what do you need?"  
"We have to kill Voldemort. He is the one who did this and he has to pay."

Draco's face was red in rage.  
"Do you know where he is?"

"Of course I do, they didn't keep that hidden from me."  
They ran together through the dark house until they finally came to a quiet hallway. There was one door in the hall; it was at the very end in pitch black.

Draco pointed to the door and Harry nodded.  
They had found their wands on their way and they used them to blow the door away.  
Inside the room they found Bellatrix Lestrange, Fenrir Greyback, Nagini and Voldemort.  
Harry and Draco rushed in and a battle pursued.

Surprised, other students had followed and rushed in behind them.  
Neville Longbottem, Fred and George Weasley and other Hogwarts students.  
Curses were flying everywhere; the death eaters mostly used the killing curse which hit many students.  
Everyone was in a great battle with someone. The death eaters had swarmed but between them and the students, it was a pretty even fight.

Harry and Draco of course took Voldemort.  
Draco took the brunt of the curses to help Harry.

At the moment he was being tortured by the Cruciatus curse. He was writhing in pain on the ground. He was yelling loudly as Harry set himself up to make a move.

When he finally made it, it surprised Voldemort but also made him very angry.  
Harry had killed Nagini in one quick movement. As he died, Voldemort yelled in pain and anger.  
The curse broke away from Draco and trough the pain; he pushed himself up and started throwing new curses where he could.

Death eaters and students were falling dead everywhere. There were screams of pain and triumph.  
After battling for what seemed to be forever, Harry finally hit Voldemort with bigger curses.  
Draco was doing his best to help and in doing so, he managed to get hit by the most curses.  
He was covered in blood and sweat. He connected a curse to Voldemort's back, making him turn toward him.

Voldemort cast a spell on Draco that threw him on the ground.  
He stood over Draco for a moment. He threw a curse at Harry.  
Harry grew still for a moment. When Voldemort moved his wand, Harry moved.  
Draco knew immediately that he was under the Imperius Curse. Harry moved over to Draco and pointed his wand at him.

He threw curses at Draco, making him jolt in pain over and over until he was nearly unconscious.  
He drew in all the strength that he had left and maybe some that he couldn't have possibly had. He drew up his wand and as quick as he could he cast the Confundus curse at Voldemort.

Fortunately, it connected. Draco passed out as Voldemort tried to shake off the spell.  
Harry took the moment right away. He yelled as loud as he could. "Avada Kadavra!"  
Green light flew out the end of his wand and connected with Voldemort. His face went blank with death and he fell to the ground.

Harry dropped to the ground to help Draco. All the living wizards turned toward him, the death eaters disappeared and the students looked on in shock and relief.  
The war was over. It finally ended with the help of Draco Malfoy.

_-_-_-_-_-

Two Weeks Later…

Draco and Harry were sitting in the Hogwarts library. Draco couldn't help feeling sad while he was there. It reminded him so much of Hermione.  
Harry and Draco had become friends since the battle and everyone recognized Draco for his part in defeating Voldemort. He was a hero now, just like Harry Potter.

"Are you sure that you didn't see what happened to Hermione?" Harry asked for the hundredth time since they left the dark depressing house.

"I told you, no. I didn't see. She is still out there somewhere."  
Draco had been telling this lie from the beginning. He just couldn't tell them what had really happened, not when he wasn't accepting it himself.

He had of course gone back to the house when he had a chance to get away. He found Hermione exactly the way he had left her.

He untied her body and he held her in his arms for hours. He cried more in that day than he had in his entire life. That was when he knew that he couldn't accept what had happened.

He carried her body out of the house and found a beautiful field with tons of colorful flowers and trees.  
He chose this place to bury her. He found smooth rocks to place as her headstone. He visits her as often as he can.

He decided that he wouldn't tell anyone unless he knew without a doubt that there was nothing that could bring her back.


	15. Hero

Chapter 15: Hero

Draco finally made his way to the great hall for dinner. He just left Dumbledore's office. When he finally sat down at the Slytherin table, the colors on the house flags changed colors. They turned black.

Dumbledore slowly made his way to the front of the large room. He had the attention of everyone in the building. Draco knew what was coming and he was quietly dreading it.

He started watching Harry to see his reaction to the news.

"Hermione Granger, a great friend, a brave hero and the smartest witch of her age... has been murdered."

Dumbledore continued even as the magical sky started raining on his head. Right away the realization hit Harry and he turned toward Draco's position but he was already walking out of the room.

Once Draco made it out of the room and out of sight, he ran to the stairs and went to his common room. He slammed the dorm room door open and slowly walked in.

Draco kicked his bed frame, punched the wall and started screaming.

(FLASHBACK) – Dumbledore's Office

"Come in Mr. Malfoy, have a seat."

Dumbledore invited Draco into his office. Draco walked in and took a seat in front of Dumbledore's big desk. He glanced over at the phoenix bird with curious eyes.

The bird was dieing, being re-born and dieing all over again. It was like the bird was set on repeat and fast forward all at once.

Before Draco could even ask Dumbledore answered, "This has only happened once before. I'm incredibly sad to see it happening yet again."

Draco replied without thought. "Voldemort."

it was simple even though he didn't understand what it meant, he knew who caused it then.

"Hermione." Dumbledore said.

He continued after a short pause, "It would bore you to hear the details, just know that things will work out eventually and Fawkes will be fine."

Draco shook the thought out of his head and went on with what he came for.

"Hermione is dead professor."

Dumbledore leaned forward on his desk and took a quick glance at Draco.

"I know. I have known for some time now. I can see it in your eyes that something terrible happened in that house. I just don't know the details, such as you with Fawkes."

Draco thought quietly for a minute before he finally answered, " I won't tell how, not yet but the who is my father. I'm sure you know that already and more but I had to say it out loud."

Draco nodded to himself and then stood up to leave, he made it to the doorway before he was stopped. Dumbledore walked forward and tapped his shoulder.

"I want to help. I'm searching for a solution everyday but today... people should know. It's time to tell."

Draco didn't respond, he just walked away and ended up in the great hall for the speech.

(END FLASHBACK)

Eventually a week went by and later a month had come and gone.

Dumbledore was gone a lot these days so he never heard anything about possible solutions until almost six months of waiting. School had gone on and so did the holidays.

When Draco got news from Dumbledore he told Harry right off.

They had gotten closer through the time they spent waiting for answers and Harry now knew everything that had happened between Draco and Hermione. They also talked about everything that happened to Harry and how school was home for both of them.

When Dumbledore finally got back to Hogwarts it was late and everyone was asleep except Draco Malfoy. He was waiting in the headmasters office for most of the night.

Dumbledore popped in with a cracking noise that echoed out of the window. He fell into his chair and looked into Draco's eyes with a serious expression tight on his face.

Draco sighed and said, "You found something. We can save her! Thank Merlin and thank you professor! You just found a cure to death."


	16. Desire

Ch 16: Desire

The spell called for many ingredients and took them months to attain them. Harry and Draco tried to focus on school and the spell so they were very busy but every time they found a new item to add to the spell they felt closer to Hermione.

It was summer vacation by the time they had everything. The spell had to be used at Hogwarts but when they got there Dumbledore had a new speech ready, or more like a warning.

Draco and Harry listened but they all knew they would do it anyway.

The only warning they took to heart was the part about how Hermione would be when she came back.

It took days to prepare for such a large spell but when it was time, their nerves were on fire.

Draco was the only one who could do the spell because he was with Hermione when she died. He thought back on that night while he made his way to a special location in the school.

He missed Hermione so much, he could easily give his life for hers and that was a possibility when using a spell like this. Draco finally reached the room and all that he saw was a tall mirror hiding in the thick shadows. The mirror brightened as he walked towards it.

When he finally stood in front of the mirror an image began to appear, it was Hermione.

Draco Malfoy stood in front of the mirror of desire and he saw Hermione Granger.

They smiled at each other as he pulled his wand out of his pocket and a bag from behind him. He put his hand into the bag and pulled out multi-colored sand, he tossed it at the mirror and hit it with a quick spell from his wand.

The mirror got brighter and brighter; the mirror started to shake then cracked down the middle until it reached the bottom.

The glass suddenly exploded and hit Draco everywhere. He could feel the blood hit his skin immediately after the explosion and glass shards were sticking out of his body.

The mirror had opened into a dark room.

He crawled into the room and the glass disappeared from his body; the wounds were gone.

He stood up and moved around the room, he moved so slowly that it was as if he were in slow motion. The air was thick and it felt wet on his skin.

A tiny light appeared across the room and it got larger and larger until it shot across the room. The light cut through the darkness like a swift knife.

It moved so fast that Draco could barely keep his eyes on it until it suddenly stopped in front of his face and it shrunk down to the size of a gulf ball.

Inside of the light, he could see Hermione sitting in a small chair without movement. It was as if she were frozen in ice. Draco reached his arm up and grabbed the ball of light in his fingers.

He studied it for a minute and then he lifted his left hand and pressed on the ball, it suddenly expanded in front of him.

The light was now a wall in front of him. He could see Hermione and the whole room she was in; it was the dungeon in the dark house where she died.

Everything started going backwards and eventually Hermione was back in the woods, then Hogwarts and she kept going back. He finally reached his arm in when Hermione reached the lake. Hermione grabbed his arm and held on tight as he pulled her forward.

He felt a burning on his arm and Hermione started screaming, it was burning her too. The wall fell into darkness and Draco couldn't see Hermione at all, but he could feel her.

Something had gone wrong and he had to get her out now.

His arm started to slice open and blood was flowing everywhere. He pulled with everything he had left in him and finally got her out.

As soon as they were out of the wall it grew light again and disappeared.

They were in complete darkness. Hermione was still screaming, she had open wounds all over her body. She was burnt and cut to almost nothing but there was a light growing around them, brighter and brighter by the second.

The brighter it was the quieter she got. Draco could feel what was happening, they were healing with the light until it was fully lighted and they had only scars instead of wounds.

The burns were gone and they weren't at Hogwarts any more, they were laying in the grass about ten feet away from the river that nearly killed Hermione so long ago.

They were back and she was alive.

"It worked!"


	17. Hermione

Ch 17: Hermione

"It worked." were the first words spoken by Draco as he sat up.

He hurried over to Hermione who was still laying on her back looking up at the clouds.

"Hermione are you alright?" He asked gently.

She sat up next to him and grabbed his scarred arm then looked down at her own scarred arms.

"What happened to us?"

Draco pulled his arm away and cleared his throat, "Uh, what do you remember?"

"I remember being in the lake and you going into the forest for wood."

She paused and took a deep breath.

"I remember pain. A lot of pain."

Draco stood up and looked around as he finally replied, "I'm really sorry about that."

Then he walked away.

Draco pulled something out of his pocket and said a couple of spells. A tent popped up and he took a step away.

"I've stocked food and clothes for both of us. Feel free while I finish up out here."

Hermione was very confused and wanted answers but her clothes were wet and she was starving. She stood up and reluctantly walked into the tent.

When Draco finally finished putting up safety spells around the area, he went into the tent to find Hermione sitting in a chair waiting for him.

"Don't you feel better being in dry clothes?"

Hermione nodded to him as she sat in a chair opposite from her.

"What the hell is going on? How do you have all of this stuff and what happened to you?"

Draco sighed, "Honestly, I don't think you would believe me and even if you did," He paused, "I don't think you would like it very much."

He got up and poured two cups full of pumpkin juice. He walked back and handed one to Hermione. He sat back down and sipped from his cup while she starred at him.

"You look so different." she said, still starring.

He grinned for the first time in ages.

"Well, it's been over a year now, I think, since I've been here with you."

Hermione sat her juice down and gave Draco a strange look as she replied, "What are you talking about? How is that possible?"

"Hermione." He tasted the name and stopped.

He didn't know how to tell her everything without scaring her. He didn't know how to tell her any of it without scaring her.

He tried again, "Hermione. So much has happened and a lot of it isn't very good. I don't want to scare you but you need to know."

She stood up and walked to the kitchen part of the tent.

"It sounds like a really long story and I'm hungry so why don't we eat and then worry about it. Acceptable?"

Draco smiled and joined her for a meal. They didn't really talk except for a comment from him about eating a snake if they had to.

Hermione argued that she would never do such a thing but he knew the truth.

Then he was suddenly saddened by the fact that he had these memories of their experiences and now they'll never even happen.

Later that night...

He finally finished telling her what had happened since he was last at the lake, with an exception of course.

He didn't mention the fact that they had been in a romantic relationship.

He told the basics and tried to make it sound less scary than it really was. Hermione sat in a corner just staring at him.

"I don't believe you."

She said in a soft whisper.

"Yes. You do."

He simply said back to her.

She got up and moved closer to him, she slowly sat down on her bed and covered up with a heavy brown blanket.

"Why do you remember everything and I don't?"

"I'm not sure, but at least things won't go the same way as last time."

"Yeah, I would really hate to be murdered again." She replied sarcastically.

They sat face to face but not very close. He still sat in the kitchen area with a chair pulled away from the table. Hermione looked past him toward the rest of the rooms.

She still couldn't believe how much work went into the place.

The large bedroom opened up into the kitchen and the living room. Then through the living room were the two separate bathrooms. The tent was almost a small house, with endless supplies for the both of them.

Draco didn't know how to respond to the joke so she just sat in silence while she looked the place over.

They sat quietly and awkwardly until she got up and went to her closet. She pulled out some clean clothes and walked past Draco.

"I'm taking a shower."

He watched her walk into the bathroom and close the door.

He sighed loudly and finally moved out of the chair.

Hermione closed the door behind her and turned the shower on. She set her clothes on the sink and started to undress. She pulled her shirt over her head and glanced at the mirror.

She had scars all over her body.

She turned away from the mirror and continued undressing.

Her eyes filled with tears but she wouldn't let them fall.

'At least I'm alive.'

She pulled herself together and stepped under the hot water.

Hermione stood unmoving under the water for a long time before she finally started to wash her hair. The shampoo smelled like strawberries and the conditioner matched. She was surprised that a guy even thought to get her conditioner and appreciated it and everything else that he did for her.

As she was rinsing her hair out and day dreaming about random unimportant things, she started to feel some pressure on her wrists and ankles that started to hurt when her vision went blurry and something else was being seen.

Nothing was very clear and it was all jumbled but the jest was of her being tied down to a little wooden chair in a dark room with candles. The men were adding chains and the pressure and pain increased.

She fell down on the shower floor and tried not to shout when the pain hit her back and head. When the vision finally cleared, her wrists and ankles were red and already starting to bruise.

She rubbed her wrists and turned the water off.

"Bloody hell!" She said to herself angrily as she reached for her towel. She tried to stand up but it took her a few tries because of the agony she was feeling in numerous areas of her body.

Her face was crinkled in pain as she started dressing.

In the other room, Draco heard the shower go off and heard Hermione quietly curse to herself. He stood up and walked to the bathroom door. He stopped in front of it and waited in silence.

He could hear her dressing and cursing some more. He finally knocked on the door and asked, "Hermione, are you alright in there?"

She opened the door and turned off the light. She folded her arms under her arm pits and walked past him.

"I'm fine, I just accidentally got some shampoo in my eye. Nothing serious."

She went to her closet and pulled out a jacket which she threw on to hide her bruises and sat down on her bed.

Draco went over to his and faced her.

"Thank you for everything Draco." She said as she laid down on her bed and covered up. "I'm really fine, I'm just tired." She reached over and turned her lamp off.

Draco laid down and got under his covers too and replied, "Good night Hermione."

All the lights were turned off now and Draco started to doze off while Hermione laid on her side facing away from him. She was rubbing her wrists again and her back ached to much to lay in any other position.

When she finally did fall asleep she had weird dreams about a green light and wondering around in a dark forest.


	18. Closer to You

-1Chapter 18: Closer to You

By the time Hermione had finally woke up, the sunlight was pouring threw the tent's thin cloth onto her face. She opened her eyes and sat up; her hair fell over her shoulders and hid her sweaty face in shadow. Hermione wiped her forehead with her arm and pushed her hair back as Draco came out of the bathroom.

His body was glistening as the sunlight hit his wet skin. He wore a pair of dark pants but nothing more. He moved from the bathroom doorway past the small living room and ended up in the bedroom.

Hermione, trying not to stare, glanced over and saw a scar on his shoulder. Curiously she moved off her bed and started toward her bathroom, on her way she glanced back and asked, "The scar on your shoulder… it's from the other day when you fell right? I mean it's obviously healed now but that's how you got it right?"

She stepped into the bathroom and grabbed a hair tie out of the cabinet by the door. She brushed her hair back and wrapped the band around the curls.

"You did a pretty good job of healing it Hermione. I'm lucky you were with me, I honestly don't know anything about healing."

Hermione opened her closet and started searching through it for something to wear.

"I did that? It's not bad but it still scarred, sorry about that."

Draco sat on his bed facing Hermione as he pulled on a shirt.

"Technically you didn't or won't but it's here, I don't know how it all works but I kind of like it.. The scar I mean."

He grinned and then continued.

"I think it makes me look tough and I'm sure the girls would think it's kind of sexy. What do you think?"

She turned away from the closet and studied him in a some-what comical manner before she finally replied, "Oh, sure. I can see it now. You're about as tough as Crookshanks and as sexy as…"

"As what?" He interrupted her.

She laughed as she pulled out some clothing, "Wouldn't you like to know."

She smoothly walked through the tent, into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Draco was left sitting there with a smirk on his lips; he had missed Hermione so much and was glad that he could start over with her.

He enjoyed the playful flirting and so had she. Draco knew then, the love they could share and he could hardly wait to get started.

Hermione had decided to take another shower because of all the sweating she did most of the night. She had strange and horrible dreams but all she could remember from them was a green light.

She of course had an idea about what it was but she didn't want to explore it any further than what her subconscious was already doing on its own.

This time though, she didn't look in the mirror at all. She couldn't stand the horrible scars anymore, she decided to try a few spells to try and hide them when she got out of the shower.

She didn't stay under the hot water for long. She mostly just stood there staring at the wall while the water ran across her skin.

Once she finished, she stayed naked while she tried to think up enough spells to cover the scars. She knew a few but even with all of them, the scars were only faded. They were more covered than not and she decided that makeup could probably help hide the ones on her face.

Of course she didn't have makeup so she finally gave up and started covering the bruises with the spells she had just used on the scars, it worked completely this time and the marks were seemingly gone.

When she felt like all of the evidence from last nights tumble were hidden, she finally walked out of the steam filled bathroom. Unfortunately, the bruises were hidden but the pain wasn't.

Hermione walked out of the bathroom while rubbing the most painful part of her back and Draco noticed right away.

"Is your back hurting?"

As soon as it left his mouth, he felt stupid for asking a question with such an obvious answer.

She dropped her hands and quickly replied.

"No. I'm fine, just slept weird I guess… it's nothing."

She cleared her throat and went to walk past him but he quickly pulled her back and softly tossed her down on his bed which earned a low squeak from Hermione. When she tried to get up, he quickly pushed her back down and climbed onto her legs.

"Hermione, just relax and let me do this."

She sighed in defeat and then had to stifle a groan when his hands started to firmly rub her back with both of his hands. He slowly made his way up her back and gripped her shoulders before dragging his hands down her sides.

Hermione's body relaxed and she closed her eyes. The feel of his hands on her body made her feel strange but good. She couldn't explain it, even to herself.

Draco kept an even pressure on her back and she could feel the heat rising inside of her body. When she thought she was getting used to his touch, he surprised her by lifting her shirt and placing his warm hands on her skin.

He didn't hesitate, he pressed his palms into her back and rubbed upward to her bra where he decided not to cross.

He slowly and softly moved his hands back down and started to rub his knuckles into her lower back. She let out a soft moan and felt his hands pause for a moment before continuing the massage.

Hermione, feeling her body responding, knew that she couldn't let things go any further because it they did, she might just flip him over and have her way with him. She tried to push herself up and was surprised that he let her this time.

She gently pulled her shirt down to cover her abdomen then took a small step away from him.

"I just need a minute."

He looked disappointed and for some reason, she suddenly had the need to reassure him.

"Thank you for the massage, it really helped. I need some air though."

His face brightened up a little and he glanced around.

"Yeah, this tent starts feeling a little to small after a while."

She smiled at him then went to the opening at the front of the tent and stepped inside. Until that moment, she hadn't realized how much she really needed the air.

The cool air hit her face and it felt amazing. It was refreshing to be out of the tent and in an open space. She walked toward the forest and eventually found a spot to sit down.

She sat on a fallen branch that didn't seem like it could hold a persons weight but managed to hold her just fine.

As she sat down, dizziness overcame her and she felt as if she might be sick. She put her hand to the ground to steady herself and the dizziness disappeared just as quickly as it came.

Instead of everything going back to normal though, her sight became blurred and a vision started playing inside of her head.

Draco bent over and she leaned up; their lips met for a moment and then they pulled away to check each other's reaction. Hermione felt again like she was really experiencing what she was now seeing.

She felt his lips caress hers and then pull away. She found herself greatly disappointed and could tell that in the vision, they both liked the experience.

She didn't have much time to think about what was happening though because before she knew it, they were kissing again. She could feel his fingers curl around her curls and pull her closer, which was strange since she was actually sitting alone on a makeshift bench.

Their tongues started playing over each other as the kiss deepened further and their tongues fought for dominance. They kissed as if they would never kiss again. It was like they had been waiting forever for this moment and now that it was here, Hermione could feel the excitement bubbling up inside of her.

When she was starting to get used to the feeling of him kissing her without him actually being there, the vision faded into a mixed one with different images and sounds before somewhat settling on a very confusing one.

Draco walked to the door but before he could open it, she stood up and called after him.

"Draco, wait, I love you!"

Hermione's face was one of shock as the vision finally subsided as Draco turned around to reply.

She was frustrated because she wanted to know if he loved her and the stupid memory didn't tell her. Honestly, she was also frustrated because of the ending of the first vision but she wouldn't admit that to anyone.

She stood up and reluctantly headed back into the tent. As soon as she entered, she felt claustrophobic but tried to push it away. She had more pressing issues to tend to.

"Draco. Could I talk to you?"

He looked confused but nodded his head anyway.

Hermione sighed and eventually continued.

"If I ask you something… will you promise to be completely honest?"

If it was possible he looked even more confused.

She stepped a little closer and met his eyes.

"Will you?"

Draco frowned but tried to look nonchalant by adding a sideways grin.

"Of course, Hermione. What is this about?"

She stepped a little closer and blushed when she immediately thought back on the vision of then kissing. She glanced away to hide it but finally went back to his gaze.

"Were we in love?"

He cleared his throat and answered quickly to recover from his shock.

"What?"

"Draco. Were we in love, I mean before I died. I need to know."


	19. Explainations

Chapter 19: Explanations

"Were we in love?"

He cleared his throat and answered quickly to recover from his shock.

"What?"

"Draco. Were we in love, I mean before I died. I need to know."

He sighed in defeat and tried to relax his posture which had become stiff from the unexpected question. He had been trying to hide his feeling from her but apparently she had seen right though it.

"Just tell me." She whispered, desperate to find the truth.

"Yes."

Hermione nodded her head at hearing the answer that she had suspected then met his eyes with her own. She didn't understand what was happening to her, she felt like she was going crazy.

She finds out that she died but was brought back by an enemy and that all her friends were being held captive by Voldemort. Then she discovers that the enemy who saved her was and still is in love with her, even though he tried to hide it from her the whole time.

The thoughts running wildly though her head were stopped when he reached his arm forward, put his fingers on her chin and lifted her face to peer into his.

"Hermione, what made you ask me that? I didn't tell you anything that would have..."

She looked away from his eyes for a moment then when she finally met his gaze again, she grabbed his hand away from her face and held onto him.

"I need to tell you something."

She pulled out her wand and murmured a spell, then without any obvious change, she placed the wand back into her pocket.

"Don't be angry with me, I didn't know what to do and I really didn't understand at first."

His brow furrowed with confusion but as quickly as it came, it was gone. Replaced by a softer expression.

"You're starting to worry me, just tell me what's going on."

He didn't say it in a mean or aggravated way but she was still afraid to tell him what she had been experiencing. So she took a deep breath to gain some Gryffindor bravery and pulled the sleeves up on her shirt.

She quickly leaned down and pushed her pants legs up to her knees. She was now showing off the bruises on her wrists and ankles.

Draco grabbed her hand and looked closer at the bruise before meeting her eyes with a somewhat angry expression.

"What happened?"

It was simple but restrained.

"I didn't do it. I don't know if that's what you think, but I didn't."

His posture softened minutely but he still looked quite angry.

"Who did. When did this happen, I mean we've been together since I brought you back."

She gently pulled away her hand and started pacing in front of him.

"It's confusing and hard to explain but I will do my best."

She paused in speaking but didn't stop pacing until she grabbed her head and stepped forward so she was standing in front of him again.

She dropped her arms and let out an exasperated sigh.

"I've been having these... I don't know, visions or flashes of what I'm assuming are memories from before I died..."

"What. That's not possible..." He cut her off and then she cut him off by placing a finger to his lips.

"I know. Yet here I am experiencing it. The visions have been leaving a physical effect on me though and I'm afraid of what might happen if I get too far into the memories."

Draco glanced around to hide some emotion that she didn't catch.

"You're afraid that these will kill you. You might see your death and it will kill you."

He quickly turned away and punched the closest thing which happened to be a tall tree. He hit it over and over until blood was falling from his hand and the tree.

"Damn it!" He yelled furiously.

Hermione stood her ground waiting for him to calm down. She honestly didn't know what would help and trying to calm him could backfire. So she patiently stayed put.

He started to storm away but thought better of it and stormed back to the tree where blood was now smeared from hitting it repeatedly.

Instead of hitting it again though, he leaned his body against it and then rubbed his face with his hands.

"I don't know what to do."

She took this as her cue and finally went to him. She slowly moved to be in front of him and placed her hand on his cheek.

"_You_ don't do anything. This will be fixed and everything will be fine."

She spoke with confidence and was surprised when she believed what she was saying. She rubbed his skin with her thumb and then pulled her hand away.

He nodded which was probably only because he didn't know what else to do. He pulled out his wand and healed his hand as well as he could before placing it back in his pocket and stepped closer to her.

She responded to him moving closer by reaching her arms up to circle around his neck and pulled him down to meet her hungry lips.

He was surprised by the sudden change in mood but quickly adjusted. He wrapped his arms around her body and they pressed together. The kiss became more passionate and before they knew it, they were in the tent moving towards his bed.


End file.
